Offline Manual ESXi Upgrade via CLI

Greetings,

With the release version of vSphere 6.5, VMware Update Manager (VUM) now comes embedded within vCenter Appliance (VCSA) 6.5. VUM can then be used to upload patches to its repository, create baselines, scan hosts for updates and remediate whenever possible.

However, You may come into a scenario where you don’t have vCenter deployed in your infrastructure or the update manager is not working and at the same time you need to update your hosts. CLI can come into rescue in such situations…

In this post, I will show you a step-by-step procedure to upgrade ESXi server 6.5 Update “d” to 6.5 Update “1” offline using CLI commands:

First let’s have a look at the current ESXi version and build number before upgrade. Using GUI:

Using CLI:

Make sure SSH service is started. Then, SSH to your host and write this command:

vmware -vl

Download ESXi 6.5 U1 offline bundle from VMware downloads portal.
Upload the downloaded zip file to a datastore accessible by the ESXi host.
Put the ESXi host to be upgraded in maintenance mode.
SSH into the desired ESXi and run the below command to list the available image profiles from the Update1 patch: esxcli software sources profile list -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/update-from-esxi6.5-6.5_update01.zipWe will use the standard profile in our upgrade.
Issue the below command to install the update on the ESXi host: esxcli software profile update -p ESXi-6.5.0-20170702001-standard -d /vmfs/volumes/
datastore1/update-from-esxi6.5-6.5_update01.zip
In the below snapshot, you can notice that the upgrade has been completed successfully and a host reboot is required.
Reboot host and check the updated version and build of the ESXi host.You can see that VMware is now showing “Update1” beside the release number and not just only the build number as previous releases.