Updating vCenter and ESXi hosts using internal Lifecycle Manager

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To update vCenter and ESXi hosts using vCenter internal Lifecycle manager use following steps:

  1. First login into vCenter and go to Menu -> Lifecycle manager.
  2. Validate that Last sync happened within last 24 hours. If not use Actions -> "Sync Updates" menu option
  3. After Lifecycle manager is able to sync with online repositories, go to Menu -> "Hosts and clusters"
  4. Click on vCenter and then go to last "Updates" tab
  5. For updating vCenter use following steps
    1. Under "vCenter Server" select "Update Planner"
    2. Select the desired update and run pre-update check
    3. If pre-update check is successful there would be option to open appliance management at https://<ip-or-fqdn>:5480/
    4. Open appliance management, login as root and go to "Updates" option
    5. Choose "Stage and Install"
    6. After download the appliance will reboot. After reboot the updates will install. The process should take considerable time. vCenter is typically available during the download part. If it is rebooting the console of vCenter will not show various URLs for 5480, 443 support bundle, 443 port etc. with appropriate IP/FQDN. Once properly booted these URLs will show up and update will happen at background. While update is going on if we try to login on appliance management at :5480 we can see error "Update installation is in progress"
    7. Once update is complete we should be able to login into vCenter or vCenter appliance management (5480 port)
  6. For updating hosts use following steps
    1. Under Hosts click on baselines
    2. For hosts click on "Check compliance"
    3. If hosts are shown as non-compliant to base lines "Host security patches" or "Critical host patches" below then click on "Pre-check remediation"
    4. Based on pre-check you may have to enable DRS, disconnect CD/DVD from some VMs, put host in maintenance mode, etc.
    5. Once that is done we can remediate hosts by selecting the base line and clicking "REMEDIATE"
    6. If host is suitable for patching / remediation, the updates will get installed and host will reboot
    7. After reboot if host was put manually in maintenance mode, remove it from maintenance mode
    8. The updates -> Hosts -> Baselines should now ideally show patched / remediated host as complaint.


Troubleshooting failed vCenter update

If vCenter update fails using above process then try to SSH to instance and use below command: 

software-packages install --url

This applies the update again / properly and seems to solve issue with partial / failed updates.


Updating ESXi 6.7 to 7.0 using lifecycle manager

It is possible not only to do patch upgrade, but also to upgrade the version of ESXi from 6.7 to 7.0 using Lifecycle manager. To upgrade ESXi using lifecycle manager use:

  1. Login into vCenter and open Lifecycle manager
  2. Go to "Imported ISOs" option and click "Import ISO". Select vSphere 7.0 ISO image and import (upload) it.
  3. Selecte the uploaded ISO in "Imported ISOs" tab (after upload is finished) and click "New Baseline"
  4. After this go to "Hosts and Clusters" view and click on a single ESXi host. From the tabs in right pane go to "Updates" pane (last option on right)
  5. Under Hosts click on "Baselines". Attach the new baseline and select the newly created ESXi 7.0 baseline
  6. Put the host in maintenance mode
  7. Now we can install ESXi 7.0 on this host using Lifecycle manager. For this go to vCenter -> Updates tab
  8. Check the host for compliance and then remediate the host against ESXi 7.0 baseline
  9. Once the host is updated, we should be able to see updated 7.0 version on the host.
  10. Then we can remove the host from maintenance mode and proceed to update other hosts to 7.0.


Note: It is also possible to update host at ESXi level using downloaded files or using online repositories. For various different ways of updating ESXi host refer:


Updating vCenter by using patch search option

Other option to upgrade vCenter is using patches by:

  1. Search for patch using https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/patch#search
    You can go to current vCenter appliance management https://<vcenter-ip-or-fqdn>:5480/ and see the build number.
  2. Search for patches for product "VC" using build number (eg 16620007) and the correct vCenter version.
  3. Download the ISO file
  4. Connect the ISO to vCenter VM
  5. In the appliance management go to update and select "CHECK UPDATES" -> "Check CD ROM" option
  6. Choose option to "Stage" or "Stage and Install" based on requirement



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