You can either use the Windows-based application called VMware Infrastructure Update
Patching with Infrastructure Update
Infrastructure Manager (IM) is often confused with Update Manager (UM), so let's explain the difference between the two. IM is installed as a separate application with VMware Infrastructure Client (VI Client) 3.5, and is used only for patching ESXi installable and embedded versions. It is not able to patch ESX hosts. Update Manager is a plug-in for VirtualCenter that is more robust and is used to patch ESX and ESXi hosts and VMs.
To patch with Infrastructure Update, ensure you have the VI Client installed on a workstation and launch the Infrastructure Update utility, which should be located under the Start menu in Programs\VMware.
Once the application loads, click on the Hosts tab. Make sure your host is checked and click the Apply button to check the host to see if it needs to be updated. Optionally you can elect to download the patches yourself and add them to the Package Cache by clicking the Add Files button on the Updates tab. You can then browse to the zip files containing the latest updates. You can also set it to automatically check for updates on a certain day and time.
Once the program is done scanning the host it will list all available updates for that host. You can see in this screen that the firmware (hypervisor) update is needed, an update to the VI client is needed and the VMware tools images that are on the host server need to be updated.
Once you click the Install Updates button it will begin to download the updates listed, and when completed it will install the updated firmware, VI client and VMware tools images.
Once the installation has completed, click Continue to finish and then close the IM application.
If you connect to the ESX host using the VI client, you will see the old build number and a message that a reboot is required.
Shutdown any VMs that are running, right-click on the host in the VI Client and select Reboot. When you restart and log back into the VI Client you will see the new build number. The last step is to update the version of VMware tools on all of your VMs so it is the same version as your ESX host is.
Patching with the vihostupdate RCLI utility
Patching with the vihostupdate RCLI utility requires that the RCLI utility be installed on a Windows or Linux workstation, or by using the preconfigured virtual appliance. Both can be downloaded from the VMware website. The RCLI is a collection of Perl scripts that connect to the ESXi host using application programming interfaces and executes commands. It is a substitute for the actual program files that were located on the Service Console with ESX. When you install the RCLI for Windows, it also installs the Active Perl application that is necessary to execute the Perl scripts that can't run in Windows natively. This method also requires you to manually download the updates and place them in a directory that is accessible by the vihostupdate utility.
Once you install the RCLI you can access it though the Start menu or by going to a command prompt and the RCLI directory. Once you are in the directory, switch to the bin subdirectory. If you do a dir you can see a list of all the Perl files that you can use.
Next, download the update you want to install as a zip file from the VMware ESXi update page.
Shut down the VMs on the ESX host. If you don't, the vihostupdate command will be unable to place the host in maintenance mode. The syntax to run the command is:
vihostupdate.pl –server
-username-password
-i –b
The username and password are optional. If you omit one or both, it will prompt you to enter them when you run the script. The '-i' parameter specifies to install a patch bundle and the '-b' parameter specifies the bundle file name.
Once the script runs, it will first unpack the zip file, then copy it to the ESX host, install it and finally reboot the host when complete.
After the host reboots you can check the host version by typing
vihostupdate.pl –server-username root –q
Reverting to a previous ESXi version
If a previous ESXi version exists on your host, you can roll back to it if you experience issues with the newly installed version. To do this you need to reboot the ESXi host. When the white bar is displayed across the screen during the boot process, hold down the SHIFT key and press the R key.
This will bring up a screen warning that the hypervisor image will be replaced with an older build. Press Y to continue with the process.
Press Enter at the next screen to boot with the older build. Once you do this, the older build is what ESXi will continue to use until you update it to a later build again.
This series of articles has shown you how to install, configure and update the free version of ESXi. The tips in these articles will help get you started using this great free product from VMware. Future tips will include some more advanced topics for administering and monitoring ESXi.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Eric Siebert is a 25-year IT veteran with experience in programming, networking, telecom and systems administration. He is a guru-status moderator on the VMware community VMTN forums and maintains VMware-land.com, a VI3 information site.
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