How to upgrade ESXI pacth

[sagar666]

Hi Guys,

How to  upgrade ESXi Patch without down time.

In our cluster all hosts are using full resources so i cannot migrate any VM's to other hosts and  I cannot take downtime too since very critical application are running.

[Akopylov]

Hello, sagar666.

I guess there is no chance for you to update ESXi without any downtome, except you want to install vib that not required restart of the host. If you have not any resources where you could migrate your vms - you will get some downtime.

[a_p_]

As mentioned by Akopylov, patching the hosts will usually require the host to reboot.

Anyway, with no spare resources and business critical applications for which you cannot afford downtime, you are running at very high risk. What do you do in case of e.g. a host failure?

André

[sagar666]

Hi Akopylov and AP

Thanks for reply now i added a host to my cluster and upgraded a patch.

Now i would like know steps to upgrade patch without down time using VIB. So that  i will test in my lab setup.

[a_p_]

The required steps depend on what exactly you are going to do, and how the current environment looks like. Let's assume you are using ESXi hosts which are on the VMware Compatibility Guide, and don't require additional drivers and vCenter Server is used to manage these hosts.

Firstly you need to ensure that vCenter Server is running a version which supports the host's version (see VMware Product Interoperability Matrix). Once vCenter Server is on a supported version, you can start upgrading the hosts one-by-one. To do this place the host in "Maintenance Mode" and migrate/vMotion the VM's to other hosts. Then run the upgrade/patch. Once the hosts has rebooted and everything works as expected, exit Maintenance Mode for the host and proceed with the next host.

What I usually do together with upgrading the hosts, is to apply the latest firmware patches to the host to avoid further maintenance windows.

André

[sagar666]

Hi andre

Thanks for your suggestions.  But I want to upgrade esxi without downtime as akpolov told in first post using Vib we can upgrade esxi without downtime

[Akopylov]

sagar666, you got me wrong, i mean there are some ESXi updates that does not require reboot of the host, but most of the updates require reboot, and you cant avoid downtime of hypervisor, so move your vms to another host.

[sagar666]

May I have the list of esx updates that doesn't require reboot