Lifecycle Manager patching has no rollback

[AndrewCirel]

I'm using Lifecycle Manager to patch our ESXi 7 servers.

• I've created a new baseline to patch our ESXi 7 servers to VMware-ESXi-7.0U3i-20842708-depot
• I'm then remediating the ESXi 7 servers to patch them which works fine.

However, for our change process, I need a working rollback, and have found that both boot banks on the ESXi 7 servers have been updated to build version 20842708.  So, if I were to try and roll it back using VMware's documented procedure, it doesn't roll it back.

Do you know why this happens?

[maksym007]

hmmm, never tried to do a rollback. But I assume that still it will be possible. If not via Livecycle then via ssh or directly attached ISO.

hard to say never tried - but I am sure that it will work

[AndrewCirel]

I tried the following on a server reboot:

1. In the console screen of the ESXi host, press Ctrl+Alt+F2 to see the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) screen.
2. Press F12 to view the shutdown options for the ESXi host.
3. Press F11 to reboot.
4. When the Hypervisor progress bar starts loading, press Shift+R (This must be done while the bar is loading, and not after. You may wish to press Shift+R repeatedly once "system is preparing to boot" to ensure you do not miss the time frame to execute the command). You will see the warning:
   
   Current hypervisor will permanently be replaced
   with build: X.X.X-XXXXXX. Are you sure? [y/n]
    
5. Press Y to roll back the build.
6. Press Enter to boot.

This process didn't work as it looks like the patching process has updated both boot banks.

I'll just have to say "do a server rebuild"