Building custom ESXi ISO with included all patches

[jdruzd6]

Hi

I want to build ESXi 6.0 ISO with included (installed) latest patches.

Latest ISO build number is 5050593 (VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.0.0.update03-5050593.x86_64.iso)

Latest patch is ESXi600-201808001 (build number=9313334)

There are also patches between builds 5050593 and 9313334:

Patch file                   Build Number

ESXi600-201703001 5224934

ESXi600-201706001 5572656

ESXi600-201710001 6765062

ESXi600-201711001 6921384

ESXi600-201803001 7967664

ESXi600-201806001 8934903

ESXi600-201807001 9239799

ESXi600-201808001 9313334

My question:

Should I apply just latest patch ESXi600-201808001 9313334 or I need to apply _ALL_ above patches ?

[diegodco31]

You can install the latest patch ESXi600-201808001 9313334

However, in case you do have a vendor customized ESXi image installed, you may need to update/patch the host using the latest vendor bundle.

Please consider marking this answer "correct" or "helpful" if you think your question have been answered correctly.

[jdruzd6]

Thanks for information

One more question:

ESXi600-201807001                      zip│ 504 M

ESXi600-201808001                      zip│ 347 M

Latest patch - ESXi600-201808001 is ~156MB smaller than previous patch ESXi600-201807001.

Any reason why ?

I don't use vendor customized ESXi images, just as I wrote before genuine VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.0.0.update03-5050593.x86_64.iso downloaded from VMware site.

[diegodco31 · Accepted solution]

This is normal.

I have already used this patch on other clients.

Please consider marking this answer "correct" or "helpful" if you think your question have been answered correctly.

[jdruzd6]

After spending few minutes checking out why both files are different (in therms of filesize difference) - here are results:

ESXi600-201807001.zip has two versions of esx-base VIBs:

- VMware_bootbank_esx-base_6.0.0-3.93.9239792.vib 157M

- VMware_bootbank_esx-base_6.0.0-3.96.9239799.vib 157M

ESXi600-201808001.zip has just one esx-base VIB:

- VMware_bootbank_esx-base_6.0.0-3.100.9313334.vib 157M