Really Lost When It Comes to Updates

[jscooper22]

Hi,

I see an "updates are available" message on my vCenter UI. I click View Updates and am taken to an Update Planner. I click the update I  I want to update to (I assume the newest one .. I have two at the moment), click the Pre-update check, and I get an error saying my password expired. Fine, I updated my root password on esxi (that's hosting my vCenter Server), and I still get the Root Password error.

Also, I cannot for the life of me find an actual install/download/apply link for the updates. I'm also not clear if my esxi host is up to date .. I assume a similar message will appear on that UI if I need to update it.

Is there a "step 1 step 2 step 3..." page somewhere that goes through the motions of finding if updates are needed (to esxi and/or sphere and/or vCenter) and installing them?

I keep seeing posts about an "update manager" but I think that's for updates to esxi rather than vCenter (though even that baffles me as I can't find an "update manager" icon in any of the screens).

Thanks,

Jeff

[IRIX201110141]

Ah... the "updates are available"  is a indicator and the update action is performed on VAMI (vSphere Appliance Management Interface) aka https://vcsa:5480 and you have to login as "root". On the left you will find an Update option on the left which will stage/update the minior updates directly from the internet or cdrom(attached ISO on your vcsa VM).

ESXi Updates are applied within vCenter by using the vSphere Client(name of the HTML5 based GUI). You have to configure LCM (formally known as  VUM) first and than apply the default our your custom baselines on Datacenter/Cluster or Host level. You can scan your DataCenter/Cluster/Host on demand or scheduled. You will notice if youre complient or which patches are missing to get a complience state. LCM will update the ESXi (similar to a WSUS for Windows GuestOS) by transfering the patches and new version from VCSA to ESXi. The ESXi have to be within maintenance mode with no running VMs.

LCM(VUM) can be used on Host/Cluster level and VM/Folder level as well to cover VMware Tools/vHW for VMs rather than patches for ESXi Hosts.

Regards,
Joerg

[jscooper22]

Wow. Thanks so much! I'll start tinkering with it Monday.

After coffee.

Thanks,

Jeff