Updating hosts that have vCenter on them

[JaxIsland75]

I have one vCenter with 2 Hosts that run ESXi v4. I want to install the updates but in order to do that I have to shutdown the guest machines and go into maintenance mode. Well the 2 hosts run the sql server and vcenter server so when I shut them off I cant connnect and therefore cannot upgrade the machines. I thought there was a standalone product that I could use to update the servers or some offline update. My question is how can I update the ESXi servers if I have to shut off my vCenter and SQL server?

[MauroBonder]

Hello,

Update first virtual center. This will solve all problem.

[JaxIsland75]

Could you explain a little further so I understand? What are the steps to update?

[Troy_Clavell]

you could always use VUM.  You just need to do one host at a time.  Ensure you vCenter and SQL VM are on the Host that you are not updating.  Remediate 1 Host at a time.

[JaxIsland75]

VUM? I am not familiar.

[Troy_Clavell]

http://www.vmware.com/products/update-manager/overview.html

It comes bundled into the vCenter media.  You can install it on your vCenter Host OS (you could use the SQL Bundled DB). Then you can automate the patching process.  Otherwise you'll have to do it manually.

Below is a good how to

http://communities.vmware.com/people/vmroyale/blog/2010/12/27/single-use-vihostupdate-how-to-for-esx...

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

From your question I assume you have local storage only, i.e.no shared storage to migrate the vCenter Server from one host to the other. In this case you need to update the hosts manually. If you are using ESXi 4.0 you can use the "Host Update Utility" which is optionally installed with the vSphere Client. In case of ESXi 4.1 you need to use the vihostupdate command line utility.

André

[JaxIsland75]

You are correct, local storage so the above post has the link on how to with the command line I will give it a shot. Thanks everyone for your help!