How to patch ESXi 5 without vCenter by Using ESXCLi

How to patch ESXi 5 from command line. Usually the patching of VMware vSphere Cluster is done through vSphere Update Manager (VUM), but for this you need vCenter. In case you’re managing single ESXi host without vCenter, you might be interested to know how to patch the ESXi host from the command line.

The patching of VMware ESXi 5 is quite straightforward process, but there is one condition: SSH access

The SSH access can be easily enabled by using the VMware vSphere client through the GUI.

How to patch ESXi 5:

Step 0 – Enabling SSH access to the VMware ESXi 5 host

Yes, there is step 0 actually. How to do it? Simple:

– Through vSphere client click on the VMware ESXi 5 server > Confiure > Security Profile (services)
–  SSh > Options >

Step 1 – Stage the ESXi 5 patches to a Datastore accessible by the VMware ESXi 5 host

Via the vSphere Datastore browser upload the patch which you have downloaded from VMware Patch Website.  This website lists all VMware ESXi Patches.

During the copy operation which can take some time, you have plenty of time to gracefully shut down all your VMs which runs at the moment on your host.

I have created a sub-folder for that purpose.

Step 2 – Connect via SSH by using putty for example

Putty is the most known SSH client.

Run this command and wait, because the decompression and installation take some time……

Use this command: esxcli software vib update 

(Note: If you use esxcli software vib install then you will loose the custom drivers, CIM providers etc you have had installed previously… )

In my case, I executed this command:

esxcli software vib update -d /vmfs/drobo01/patches/<your-upgrade-bundle.zip>

The process will probably take some time.

You should screen confirming the installation and requiring the reboot of the host.

Step 3 – Reboot your VMware ESXi 5 host

Now when you reboot, the system will probably complain that the maintenance mode hasn’t been enabled….

And you should see the version number change on your VMware ESXi 5 host.

The ESXi 5 patching can be done by using PowerCLI.