This article demonstrates how to update a stand alone ESXi host to the latest available version.
In this example I will upgrade ESXi from Version 7.0.2 Build 17867351 to ESXi 7.0.3 Build 20328353.
The steps are straight-forward, and depending on your host type it won’t take more than 10 minutes and a reboot.
VMware Patch Repository
First we need the latest version of ESXi from the VMware Patch Repository.
Log in with your My VMware credentials, select the desired ESXi version and choose Search.
After the search is complete, select your version and choose Download Selected.
Create a folder in a datastore and upload this file the VMware-ESXi-7.0U3g-20328353-depot.zip file to this folder.
Update our ESXi host
Connect via SSH to your ESXi host, in my example I will use Putty.
If you get the error “Network Error: Connection Refused” you need to enable SSH first.
Log on to the ESXi web UI > Manage > Services > TSM-SSH > Start to enable SSH.
Before we start updating, I will lookup my current version with the vmware -v command so I can validate that my update is successful later on.
We have now verified that the current version of the ESXi host is VMware ESXi 7.0.2 Build 17867351.
Now run the following command to install the update.
esxcli software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/6081d812-0b055026-ed71-d09466942ee0/ESX-UPDATE-703/VMware-ESXi-7.0U3g-20328353-depot.zipThe result will look like this:
As you see in previous screenshot, the host needs a reboot for the changes to be effective.
Reboot the host by typing the reboot command and wait for the host to come back online.
When the host is back online, reconnect your Putty session and re-run the vmware-v command to see if the update is successful.
The following screenshot shows that my ESXi host has been updated successfully to version VMware ESXi 7.0.3 build-20328353.
This article demonstrated how to update a stand alone ESXi host, good luck with your own updates!
Check out our other vSphere related articles here!
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