Reason for staging patches for ESXi?

[rickardnobel]

When using the Update Manager tool I can select to "stage" patches at a ESXi host, which I belive is to copy the relevant patches to the host prior to installation, but is there any difference in doing this or doing both copying and install at the same time?

Is there any different downtime for the host compared to these two options?

[FranckRookie]

Hi Ricnob,

If your host is on a remote site with a low bandwidth connection and you choose Installation without Staging first, file transfer will take some time and you don't know when your host will reboot. Downtime duration will be the same in both cases. The only difference is that, choosing Staging and then Installation, you know when the host will reboot (in case it is needed).

Regards

Franck

[rickardnobel]

Thanks. There is no difference in when the host has to be put into maintanance mode?

[Troy_Clavell · Accepted solution]

when you remediate is when the host needs to go into maintenance mode, not during the staging process

[rickardnobel]

Troy Clavell wrote:

when you remediate is when the host needs to go into maintenance mode, not during the staging process

Thanks, so the advantage is just to do a more predicatable maintaince mode when I know that all patches are already downloaded to the host?