updating a single ESXi host

[TedH256]

I've got a DR site with one host (managed by a vCenter appliance and windows PSC) that is the recovery site in an SRM deployment, and it also runs an AD domain controller, and vSphere replication . Plus of course potentially the VMs that may be recovered.

But - I am not certain how I will apply updates to this host? I have no physical boxes besides the ESXi host itself. I do have a VPN so can connect with a remote laptop or whatever.

What's the best way to update this host? Things are complicated a bit also because the host has an async SAS controller driver from HP (so, the correct driver is NOT included in the usual VMware update packages). In a multi-host cluster environment, this is all easy of course - add in an HP repository, create a baseline that includes the updated HP drivers, and then put the host in maint mode and remediate. May have to do it twice to catch the updated HP drivers.

But - how the hell is this done without Update manager and another host?

[douglasarcidino · Accepted solution]

If you have any sort of IPMI(iLO since it is HP) toss an HP branded ESXi ISO in there and upgrade it that way. After that, you can download the bundles locally using SSH or the datastore browser and run the offline bundles against the host.

https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=20089...

If this post was helpful, please mark it as such.

[TedH256]

The two things I'm not certain of from your comments -

1)is booting to the HP branded CD (that has, let's say U1) actually a supported way to apply the updates? It's supported to "upgrade" to a higher patch level?

2)Also - reading through the linked kb, I find myself wondering how I know which of the numerous available patches apply to a given host?

[douglasarcidino]

Yes. When you boot from the CD it will give you several options.  Upgrade in place, reinstall without damaging vmfs and reinstall destroying the vmfs. I have lots of single host environments that I patch this way.

When you look at the particular patch report, it will tell you what systems the patch is for. Hardware patches are a bit more difficult but there are several command line options for determining what patches you need. You can also go ahead and install VUM, run a compliance check against your host and then follow the links in each patch to the download.

[TedH256]

ok thank you again - this answer spurs one more question: 🙂

are patch bundles (like U1b) actually delivered as bundles, so that I can simply download the bundle? And then I guess- like you said maybe install VUM to get the list of which patches in the bundle need to be applied?

Finally you said there are command line options for discovering what patches a system needs - is that essentially a command line version of VUM that does that, or ... what commands are they?