Upgradting ESXi 5.1 to the latest Update3

[Fred85]

Hello,

I am using ESXi 5.1.0 1065491 (i upgraded yesterday to esxi5.1-5.1_update01), which was successfully but I noticed there are two remaining updates 02 and 03. My question is, do these updates come already with the patches? Or after I install a update version, do I need to install their patches one by one? I hope this makes sense.

Thanks,

Freddy

[Nick_Andreev]

The latest vSphere version is 5.5. You may want to consider an upgrade to the latest version.

Regarding the updates. There is an update level and there is a patch level. So say for vSphere 5.1 the latest update level is level 3. But then there was patch 7 released afterwards, which you'll need to apply as well.

If you're using Update Manager the whole process is automated and normally you don't need to worry about all these things.

[Fred85]

Hello Nick,

I can't use ESXi 5.5 since the AP Controller at the moment only works on ESXi 5.1 or below so that is the reason I am still using 5.1.

So to better understand you (I apologize if I'm repeating myself again), since i applied Update1 (update-from-esxi5.1-5.1_update01) (this is the site where I am getting the patches https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/patch#search), do I apply the patches that display underneath or above the Update01 and when I apply Update 2 and 3 version? There are a few more patches above "update01" before I can select Update02 so since I applied that version so I need to install those patches for Update01? Can I skip Updates and just go to the latest which is Update 03 and I apply the two patches for Update03? Is that how it works?

I really appreciate your help! Thank you

[Nick_Andreev]

Is there any particular reason why you are not using Update Manager? If you have a vCenter licence, you should absolutely use it.

[Fred85]

Because it's the free license. We are not a VMware shop. We use Citrix ZenServer but this AP controller only works on ESXi

[Nick_Andreev]

Then you can download and apply the latest build, which is currently 3070626 for vSphere 5.1. There is no need to apply all of them one by one. These patches are cumulative.

[SavkoorSuhas]

How it works is.

Lets say 5.1 u1 is released.

Then couple of patches are released after u1

Then u2 is out. Now whatever patches were there between u1 and u2 is found in u2.

Now lets say u2 is the highest update for this chain

Then 3 more patches are released after u2

These must be manually applied

In short. Updates are group of patches that was released before them along with a couple of bug fixes and security fixes.

Suhas

[Fred85]

Hello there,

so can I just go straight and apply Update03 (bypassing U2)?

Thanks,

FC

[Fred85]

Thank you so much Nick!!

FC

[SavkoorSuhas]

Yes, you can.

However, in some cases, once you got to U3 and perform a scan again, the compliance status comes up as non compliant.

And when we check why it is non compliant, we see certain patches missing.

These missing vibs might have been released after U2 and might have not been included in U3.

If it comes up as non compliant, then you will have to re-remediate for those missing vibs.

Suhas