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grob115
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

What to download for upgrades?

Hi, have just read through the following article about upgrading via CLI.

Quickest Way to Patch an ESX/ESXi Using the Command-line | VMware vSphere Blog - VMware Blogs

Take for example, in order to do the upgrade on an ESXi6 I'd need to run the following.

esxcli software vib update −−depot=/vmfs/volumes/[datastore]/<zip>

The question is, where do I find the patch?  For example, I'm running ESXi 6.0 released on March but now there is already a ESXi 6.0b released in July.  Do I have to download the whole ISO or is there a smaller patch file to download?  If there is a smaller patch file, where can I find them?

Thanks.

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npadmani
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

a very useful blog post for this matter

Understanding ESXi Patches – Finding Patches | VMware vSphere Blog - VMware Blogs

Narendra Padmani VCIX6-DCV | VCIX7-CMA | VCI | TOGAF 9 Certified
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CoolRam
Expert
Expert

You just need to download the update zip bundle . once it download keep it in the datastore and run this command .

Esxcli software sources professional list -d ./vmfs/volumes/update zip    that will list the profile .

Now you can use the standard profile to upgrade the host.

Esxcli software profile update -d /vmfs/volumes/ update zip.  -p standard profile

You never need iso to upgrade or patch host using iso.

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CoolRam
Expert
Expert

You can use VVmware patchmgr portal to get the latest patch info .

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markdjones82
Expert
Expert

If you have Vcenter you should look into using Vmware Update Manager.  If you don't, going to the latest patches is usually recommended, but you obviously want to review the release notes.

You will also want to compare it to the Hardware Compatability List to make sure your hardware is supported.

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php

Also of note is that upgrades usually do not update drivers only the core VM packages and therefore you will also want to look at and download the latest drivers from the compatablility list.

http://www.twitter.com/markdjones82 | http://nutzandbolts.wordpress.com
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gcsc
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

If you have a vCenter use Update Manager, it will download and update the hosts for you. It will also vMotion the VMs off the hosts and put the hosts into maintenance mode.

If you only have hosts then you will have to download the patches manually from VMware, upload them to the host (with something like WinSCP), SSH to the host and patch them using the commands you specified. Check first what build version you're running from the vSphere/web client.

I found this website to be quite helpful in showing you what updates are available.

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