Patching question

[asiajason]

Hi,

I've done a lot of searching, learned the different components, etc, and am still a bit unclear on the path I need to follow.

My environment:

ESXi hosts (qty 3) running  5.5 v2068190 (update 2) Essentials license

vCenter Appliance 5.5.0.30500 Build 4180648 (update 3e)

I want to be sure latest drivers are installed, and would prefer to do this remotely, not on site (boot from iso)

I thought I should be using Update Manager, but I can't find out if it can be used because I have the vCenter Appliance, not the windows installation.

I see several downloads, and some require rebooting on the host, some look like they are just driver updates:

ESXi 5.5 Update 3b ISO image (seems to require rebooting, and am unsure)

ESXi 5.5 Update 3b Offline bundle - (this seems to offer VIB's upgrades without rebooting?)

Questions:

1) do I need to install vCenter on a windows machine instead of the appliance if I want to install Update Manager?

2) what are the pitfalls I must be careful of?

- drivers - will they work with my older hardware?  I don't want to do an update and not be able to boot/access network, drives, etc.

- any way to just update the drivers, and not the esxi version?

3) how to backup/rollback the esxi update?

4) If I want to manually update, what utility should I be using?

Thank you

[DavoudTeimouri]

1. You can install Update Manager on a Windows and register your vCenter on it. There is no need to migrate vCenter to Windows.

2. Actually, all patches and upgrades need to restart to applying new configuration and also loading new modules. So you can install patches as bundle files but you have to reboot your server one time at least.

3. If you don't have any problem with your hardware, don't apply patches or upgrade your version because some times, newer drivers need to newer frimware to work.

4. After applying each patch you can rollback to previous version by hitting Shift+R.

5. You can apply your patches by "esxcli software vib install -d <Your Bundle File>"