VMware ESXi Upgrade 17 APR 2018 VMware vSphere 6.7 VMware ESXi 6.
VMware ESXi Upgrade You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware website at: https://docs.vmware.com/ If you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback to docfeedback@vmware.com VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Ave. Palo Alto, CA 94304 www.vmware.com Copyright © 2018 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright and trademark information. VMware, Inc.
Contents 1 About VMware ESXi Upgrade 4 2 Introduction to vSphere Upgrade 5 Overview of the vSphere Upgrade Process 5 3 Upgrading ESXi Hosts 10 ESXi Requirements 10 Before Upgrading ESXi Hosts Upgrade Hosts Interactively 20 33 Installing or Upgrading Hosts by Using a Script PXE Booting the ESXi Installer 49 Upgrading Hosts by Using esxcli Commands After You Upgrade ESXi Hosts 34 56 69 4 Using vSphere Auto Deploy to Reprovision Hosts 74 Introduction to vSphere Auto Deploy Preparing for vSphere Auto
About VMware ESXi Upgrade 1 VMware ESXi Upgrade describes how to upgrade VMware ESXi™ to the current version. Intended Audience VMware ESXi Upgrade is for anyone who needs to upgrade from earlier versions of ESXi. These topics are for experienced Microsoft Windows or Linux system administrators who are familiar with virtual machine technology and data center operations. vSphere Web Client and vSphere Client Task instructions in this guide are based on the vSphere Web Client.
Introduction to vSphere Upgrade 2 vSphere 6.7 provides many options for upgrading your vSphere deployment. For a successful vSphere upgrade, you must understand the upgrade options, the configuration details that impact the upgrade process, and the sequence of tasks. The two core components of vSphere are VMware ESXi™ and VMware vCenter Server™. ESXi is the virtualization platform on which you can create and run virtual machines and virtual appliances.
VMware ESXi Upgrade Figure 2‑1. Overview of High-Level vSphere Upgrade Tasks Start vSphere upgrade Back up your configuration Upgrade vCenter Server Upgrade ESXi hosts Upgrade virtual machines and virtual appliances Upgrade to vSphere 6.7 complete Upgrading vSphere includes the following tasks: 1 Read the vSphere release notes. 2 Verify that you have backed up your configuration.
VMware ESXi Upgrade Overview of the ESXi Host Upgrade Process VMware provides several ways to upgrade ESXi version 6.0.x and version 6.5.x hosts toESXi 6.7. The details and level of support for an upgrade to ESXi 6.7 depend on the host to be upgraded and the upgrade method that you use. Verify support for the upgrade path from your current version of ESXi to the version to which you are upgrading. See VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes at http://www.vmware.
VMware ESXi Upgrade High level steps for upgrading ESXi: 1 Verify that your system meets the upgrade requirements. See ESXi Requirements. 2 Prepare your environment before upgrading. See Before Upgrading ESXi Hosts. 3 Determine where you want to locate and boot the ESXi installer. See Media Options for Booting the ESXi Installer. If you are PXE-booting the installer, verify that your network PXE infrastructure is properly set up. See PXE Booting the ESXi Installer. 4 Upgrade ESXi.
VMware ESXi Upgrade vSphere Auto Deploy If an ESXi host is deployed with vSphere Auto Deploy, you can use vSphere Auto Deploy to reprovision the host and reboot it with a new image profile. This profile contains an ESXi upgrade or patch, a host configuration profile, and optionally, third-party drivers or management agents that are provided by VMware partners. You can build custom images by using vSphere ESXi Image Builder CLI. See Chapter 4 Using vSphere Auto Deploy to Reprovision Hosts.
Upgrading ESXi Hosts 3 After you upgrade vCenter Serverand vSphere Update Manager, upgrade ESXi hosts. You can upgrade ESXi 6.0.x and 6.5.x hosts directly to ESXi 6.7. To upgrade hosts, you can use the tools and methods that are described in Overview of the ESXi Host Upgrade Process. Caution If you upgrade hosts managed by vCenter Server, you must upgrade to vCenter Server before you upgrade ESXi. If you do not upgrade in the correct order, you can lose data and lose access to servers.
VMware ESXi Upgrade n ESXi 6.7 requires a host machine with at least two CPU cores. n ESXi 6.7 supports 64-bit x86 processors released after September 2006. This includes a broad range of multi-core processors. For a complete list of supported processors, see the VMware compatibility guide at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility. n ESXi 6.7 requires the NX/XD bit to be enabled for the CPU in the BIOS. n ESXi 6.7 requires a minimum of 4 GB of physical RAM.
VMware ESXi Upgrade Storage Requirements for ESXi 6.7 Installation or Upgrade Installing ESXi 6.7 or upgrading to ESXi 6.7 requires a boot device that is a minimum of 1 GB. When booting from a local disk, SAN or iSCSI LUN, a 5.2-GB disk is required to allow for the creation of the VMFS volume and a 4-GB scratch partition on the boot device. If a smaller disk or LUN is used, the installer attempts to allocate a scratch region on a separate local disk.
VMware ESXi Upgrade Supported Remote Management Server Models and Firmware Versions You can use remote management applications to install or upgrade ESXi, or to manage hosts remotely. Table 3‑1. Supported Remote Management Server Models and Minimum Firmware Versions Remote Management Server Model Firmware Version Java Dell DRAC 7 1.30.30 (Build 43) 1.7.0_60-b19 Dell DRAC 6 1.54 (Build 15), 1.70 (Build 21) 1.6.0_24 Dell DRAC 5 1.0, 1.45, 1.51 1.6.0_20,1.6.0_203 Dell DRAC 4 1.75 1.6.
VMware ESXi Upgrade Table 3‑2. Recommendations for Enhanced Performance System Element Recommendation RAM ESXi hosts require more RAM than typical servers. Provide at least 8GB of RAM to take full advantage of ESXi features and run virtual machines in typical production environments. An ESXi host must have sufficient RAM to run concurrent virtual machines. The following examples are provided to help you calculate the RAM required by the virtual machines running on the ESXi host.
VMware ESXi Upgrade The following table lists the firewalls for services that are installed by default. If you install other VIBs on your host, additional services and firewall ports might become available. The information is primarily for services that are visible in the vSphere Web Client but the table includes some other ports as well. Table 3‑3. Incoming Firewall Connections Port Protoc ol Service Description 5988 TCP CIM Server Server for CIM (Common Information Model).
VMware ESXi Upgrade Table 3‑3. Incoming Firewall Connections (Continued) Port Protoc ol Service 5900 -5964 TCP RFB protocol 80, 9000 TCP vSphere Update Manager Description Table 3‑4. Outgoing Firewall Connections Port Protocol Service Description 427 TCP, UDP CIM SLP The CIM client uses the Service Location Protocol, version 2 (SLPv2) to find CIM servers. 547 TCP, UDP DHCPv6 DHCP client for IPv6.
VMware ESXi Upgrade Table 3‑4. Outgoing Firewall Connections (Continued) Port Protocol Service Description 902 UDP VMware vCenter Agent vCenter Server agent. 8080 TCP vsanvp Used for vSAN Vendor Provider traffic. 9080 TCP I/O Filter Service Used by the I/O Filters storage feature Table 3‑5.
VMware ESXi Upgrade Table 3‑6.
VMware ESXi Upgrade ESXi Passwords ESXi enforces password requirements for access from the Direct Console User Interface, the ESXi Shell, SSH, or the VMware Host Client. n By default, you have to include a mix of characters from four character classes: lowercase letters, uppercase letters, numbers, and special characters such as underscore or dash when you create a password. n By default, password length is more than 7 and less than 40.
VMware ESXi Upgrade For legacy hosts, changing the /etc/pamd/passwd file is still supported, but changing the file is deprecated for future releases. Use the Security.PasswordQualityControl advanced option instead. Changing Default Password Restrictions You can change the default restriction on passwords or pass phrases by using the Security.PasswordQualityControl advanced option for your ESXi host. See the vCenter Server and Host Management documentation for information on setting ESXi advanced options.
VMware ESXi Upgrade 2 n Read Overview of the ESXi Host Upgrade Process to understand the upgrade scenarios that are supported, and the options and tools that are available to perform the upgrade. n Read the VMware vSphere Release Notes for known installation issues. Prepare the system for the upgrade. n Make sure that the current ESXi version is supported for the upgrade. See Overview of the ESXi Host Upgrade Process. n Make sure that the system hardware complies with ESXi requirements.
VMware ESXi Upgrade Upgrading Hosts That Have Third-Party Custom VIBs A host can have custom vSphere installation bundles (VIBs) installed, for example, for third-party drivers or management agents. When you upgrade an ESXi host to 6.7, all supported custom VIBs are migrated, regardless of whether the VIBs are included in the installer ISO. If the host or the installer ISO image contains a VIB that creates a conflict and prevents the upgrade, an error message identifies the VIB that created the conflict.
VMware ESXi Upgrade 3 Burn the ISO image to a CD or DVD. Format a USB Flash Drive to Boot the ESXi Installation or Upgrade You can format a USB flash drive to boot the ESXi installation or upgrade. The instructions in this procedure assume that the USB flash drive is detected as /dev/sdb. Note The ks.cfg file that contains the installation script cannot be located on the same USB flash drive that you are using to boot the installation or upgrade.
VMware ESXi Upgrade Enter p to print the partition table. e The result should be similar to the following message. Disk /dev/sdb: 2004 MB, 2004877312 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks /dev/sdb1 1 243 1951866 System W95 FAT32 (LBA) Enter w to write the partition table and exit the program. f 3 Id c Format the USB flash drive with the Fat32 file system. /sbin/mkfs.
VMware ESXi Upgrade 11 Unmount the installer ISO image. umount /esxi_cdrom The USB flash drive can boot the ESXi installer. Create a USB Flash Drive to Store the ESXi Installation Script or Upgrade Script You can use a USB flash drive to store the ESXi installation script or upgrade script that is used during scripted installation or upgrade of ESXi.
VMware ESXi Upgrade 3 Format the USB flash drive with the Fat32 file system. /sbin/mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n USB /dev/sdb1 4 Mount the USB flash drive. mount /dev/sdb1 /usbdisk 5 Copy the ESXi installation script to the USB flash drive. cp ks.cfg /usbdisk 6 Unmount the USB flash drive. The USB flash drive contains the installation or upgrade script for ESXi. What to do next When you boot the ESXi installer, point to the location of the USB flash drive for the installation or upgrade script.
VMware ESXi Upgrade 5 (Optional) Modify the boot.cfg file to specify the location of the installation or upgrade script by using the kernelopt option. You must use uppercase characters to provide the path of the script, for example, kernelopt=runweasel ks=cdrom:/KS_CUST.CFG The installation or upgrade becomes completely automatic, without the need to specify the kickstart file during the installation or upgrade. 6 Recreate the ISO image using the mkisofs or the genisoimage command.
VMware ESXi Upgrade When the target machine first boots, it broadcasts a packet across the network requesting information to boot itself. The DHCP server responds. The DHCP server must be able to determine whether the target machine is allowed to boot and the location of the initial boot loader binary, typically a file on a TFTP server. Caution Do not set up a second DHCP server if your network already has one.
VMware ESXi Upgrade allow booting; allow bootp; option dhcp6.bootfile-url code 59 = string; option dhcp6.bootfile-url "tftp://[xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx::xxxx]/mboot.efi"; When a machine attempts to PXE boot, the DHCP server provides an IP address and the location of the mboot.efi binary file on the TFTP server. Example of Booting Using HTTP with IPv4 This example shows how to configure an ISC DHCP server to boot ESXi using a Web server at IPv4 address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.
VMware ESXi Upgrade option dhcp6.bootfile-url code 59 = string; if exists user-class and option user-class = "iPXE" { # Instruct iPXE to load mboot.efi as secondary bootloader option dhcp6.bootfile-url "tftp://[xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx::xxxx]/mboot.efi"; } else { # Load the snponly.efi configuration of iPXE as initial bootloader option dhcp6.bootfile-url "tftp://[xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx::xxxx]/snponly.
VMware ESXi Upgrade File Location for the PXE Configuration File Save the file in /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/ on the TFTP server. For example, you might save the file on the TFTP server at /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/01-00-21-5ace-40-f6. The MAC address of the network adapter on the target ESXi host is 00-21-5a-ce-40-f6. PXE Boot Background Information Understanding the PXE boot process can help you during troubleshooting.
VMware ESXi Upgrade UEFI PXE and iPXE Most UEFI firmware natively includes PXE support that allows booting from a TFTP server. The firmware can directly load the ESXi boot loader for UEFI systems, mboot.efi. Additional software such as PXELINUX is not required. iPXE can also be useful for UEFI systems that do not include PXE in firmware and for older UEFI systems with bugs in their PXE support. For such cases you can try installing iPXE on a USB flash drive and booting from there.
VMware ESXi Upgrade Prerequisites Create a My VMware account at https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/. Procedure 1 Download the ESXi installer from the VMware Web site at https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/downloads. ESXi is listed under Datacenter & Cloud Infrastructure. 2 Confirm that the md5sum is correct. See the VMware Web site topic Using MD5 Checksums at http://www.vmware.com/download/md5.html. Upgrade Hosts Interactively To upgrade ESXi 6.0 hosts or ESXi 6.5 hosts to ESXi 6.
VMware ESXi Upgrade 3 In the Select a Disk panel, select the drive on which to install or upgrade ESXi and press Enter. Press F1 for information about the selected disk. Note Do not rely on the disk order in the list to select a disk. The disk order is determined by the BIOS. On systems where drives are continuously being added and removed, they might be out of order. 4 Upgrade or install ESXi if the installer finds an existing ESXi installation and VMFS datastore.
VMware ESXi Upgrade To specify the location of the installation script, set the ks=filepath option, where filepath is indicates the location of your Kickstart file. Otherwise, a scripted installation or upgrade cannot start. If ks=filepath is omitted, the text installer is run. Supported boot options are listed in Boot Options. Procedure 1 Start the host. 2 When the ESXi installer window appears, press Shift+O to edit boot options.
VMware ESXi Upgrade Table 3‑7. Boot Options for ESXi Installation (Continued) Boot Option Description ip=ip address Sets up a static IP address to be used for downloading the installation script and the installation media. Note: the PXELINUX format for this option is also supported. See the IPAPPEND option under SYSLINUX at the syslinux.zytor.com site. ks=cdrom:/path Performs a scripted installation with the script at path, which resides on the CD in the CD-ROM drive.
VMware ESXi Upgrade About Installation and Upgrade Scripts The installation/upgrade script is a text file, for example ks.cfg, that contains supported commands. The command section of the script contains the ESXi installation options. This section is required and must appear first in the script.
VMware ESXi Upgrade clearpart (optional) Clears any existing partitions on the disk. Requires the install command to be specified. Carefully edit the clearpart command in your existing scripts. --drives= Remove partitions on the specified drives. --alldrives Ignores the --drives= requirement and allows clearing of partitions on every drive. --ignoredrives= Removes partitions on all drives except those specified. Required unless the --drives= or --alldrives flag is specified.
VMware ESXi Upgrade n VML name: --disk=vml.000000034211234 n vmkLUN UID: --disk=vmkLUN_UID For accepted disk name formats, see Disk Device Names. --firstdisk= disk-type1, Partitions the first eligible disk found. By default, the eligible disks are set to the following order: [disk-type2,...] 1 Locally attached storage (local) 2 Network storage (remote) 3 USB disks (usb) You can change the order of the disks by using a comma-separated list appended to the argument.
VMware ESXi Upgrade n If you select an HDD disk, and the disk group size is two or less, the SSD and the selected HDD will be wiped. For more information about managing vSAN disk groups, see the vSphere Storage documentation. --overwritevmfs Required to overwrite an existing VMFS datastore on the disk before installation. --preservevmfs Preserves an existing VMFS datastore on the disk during installation. --novmfsondisk Prevents a VMFS partition from being created on this disk.
VMware ESXi Upgrade --overwritevsan You must use the --overwritevsan option when you install ESXi on a disk, either SSD or HDD (magnetic), that is in a vSAN disk group. If you use this option and no vSAN partition is on the selected disk, the installation will fail. When you install ESXi on a disk that is in a vSAN disk group, the result depends on the disk that you select: n If you select an SSD, the SSD and all underlying HDDs in the same disk group will be wiped.
VMware ESXi Upgrade n Norwegian n Polish n Portuguese n Russian n Slovenian n Spanish n Swedish n Swiss French n Swiss German n Turkish n Ukrainian n United Kingdom n US Default n US Dvorak serialnum or vmserialnum (optional) Deprecated in ESXi 5.0.x. Supported in ESXi 5.1 and later. Configures licensing. If not included, ESXi installs in evaluation mode. --esx= Specifies the vSphere license key to use.
VMware ESXi Upgrade --nameserver= Designates the primary name server as an IP address. Used with the -bootproto=static option. Omit this option if you do not intend to use DNS. The --nameserver option can accept two IP addresses. For example: -nameserver="10.126.87.104[,10.126.87.120]" --netmask= Specifies the subnet mask for the installed system, in the form 255.xxx.xxx.xxx. Used with the --bootproto=static option. --hostname= Specifies the host name for the installed system.
VMware ESXi Upgrade driver rather than a normal local disk, the argument is --firstdisk=ST3120814A,mptsas,local. You can use localesx for local storage that contains ESXi image or remoteesx for remote storage that contains ESXi image. reboot (optional) Reboots the machine after the scripted installation is complete. <--noeject> The CD is not ejected after the installation. rootpw (required) Sets the root password for the system. --iscrypted Specifies that the password is encrypted.
VMware ESXi Upgrade driver rather than a normal local disk, the argument is --firstdisk=ST3120814A,mptsas,local. You can use localesx for local storage that contains ESXi image or remoteesx for remote storage that contains ESXi image. %include or include (optional) Specifies another installation script to parse. This command is treated similarly to a multiline command, but takes only one argument. filename For example: %include part.
VMware ESXi Upgrade =[python|busybox] Note You cannot check the semantics of the %firstboot script until the system boots for the first time. If the script contains errors, they are not exposed until after the installation is complete. Disk Device Names The install, upgrade, and installorupgrade installation script commands require the use of disk device names. Table 3‑8. Disk Device Names Format Example Description VML vml.00025261 The device name as reported by the VMkernel MPX mpx.
VMware ESXi Upgrade Table 3‑9. Commands in boot.cfg . (Continued) Command Description kernelopt=STRING Appends STRING to the kernel boot options. modules=FILEPATH1 --- FILEPATH2... --- FILEPATHn Lists the modules to be loaded, separated by three hyphens (---). See Create an Installer ISO Image with a Custom Installation or Upgrade Script and PXE Booting the ESXi Installer.
VMware ESXi Upgrade 2 When the ESXi installer window appears, press Shift+O to edit boot options. 3 Type a boot option that calls the default installation or upgrade script or an installation or upgrade script file that you created. The boot option has the form ks=. 4 Press Enter. The installation, upgrade, or migration runs, using the options that you specified.
VMware ESXi Upgrade 2 When the ESXi installer window appears, press Shift+O to edit boot options. 3 Type a boot option that calls the default installation or upgrade script or an installation or upgrade script file that you created. The boot option has the form ks=. 4 Press Enter. The installation, upgrade, or migration runs, using the options that you specified. Performing a Scripted Installation or Upgrade of ESXi by Using PXE to Boot the Installer ESXi 6.
VMware ESXi Upgrade PXE booting requires some network infrastructure and a machine with a PXE-capable network adapter. Most machines that can run ESXi have network adapters that can PXE boot. Note PXE booting with legacy BIOS firmware is possible only over IPv4. PXE booting with UEFI firmware is possible with either IPv4 or IPv6.
VMware ESXi Upgrade The interaction between the ESXi host and other servers proceeds as follows: 1 The user boots the target ESXi host. 2 The target ESXi host makes a DHCP request. 3 The DHCP server responds with the IP information and the location of the TFTP server. 4 The ESXi host contacts the TFTP server and requests the file that the DHCP server specified. 5 The TFTP server sends the network boot loader, and the ESXi host executes it.
VMware ESXi Upgrade n Use a native VLAN in most cases. If you want to specify the VLAN ID to be used with PXE booting, check that your NIC supports VLAN ID specification. For legacy BIOS systems, version 3.86 of the SYSLINUX package, available from https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/. Procedure 1 Configure the DHCP server for TFTP boot. 2 (Legacy BIOS only) Obtain and configure PXELINUX: a Obtain SYSLINUX version 3.86, unpack it, and copy the pxelinux.
VMware ESXi Upgrade 6 Modify the boot.cfg file a Add the following line: prefix=ESXi-6.x.x-xxxxxx Here, ESXi-6.x.x-xxxxxx is the pathname of the installer files relative to the TFTP server's root directory. b If the filenames in the kernel= and modules= lines begin with a forward slash (/) character, delete that character. 7 (Optional) For a scripted installation, in the boot.cfg file, add the kernelopt option to the line after the kernel command, to specify the location of the installation script.
VMware ESXi Upgrade n Target host with a hardware configuration that is supported for your version of ESXi. See the VMware Compatibility Guide. n Network adapter with PXE support on the target ESXi host. n DHCP server configured for PXE booting. See Sample DHCP Configurations. n TFTP server. n Network security policies to allow TFTP traffic (UDP port 69). n For legacy BIOS, you can use only IPv4 networking. For UEFI PXE boot, you can use IPv4 or IPv6 networking.
VMware ESXi Upgrade 4 (Legacy BIOS only) Obtain and configure PXELINUX: a Obtain SYSLINUX version 3.86, unpack it, and copy the gpxelinux.0 file to the toplevel /tftpboot directory on your TFTP server. b Create a PXELINUX configuration file using the following code model. ESXi-6.x.x-XXXXXX is the name of the TFTP subdirectory that contains the ESXi installer files. DEFAULT install NOHALT 1 LABEL install KERNEL ESXi-6.x.x-XXXXXX/mboot.c32 APPEND -c ESXi-6.x.x-XXXXXX/boot.
VMware ESXi Upgrade 9 (UEFI only) Specify whether you want for all UEFI hosts to boot the same installer. Option Description Same installer Copy or link the boot.cfg file to /tftpboot/boot.cfg Different installers a Create a subdirectory of /tftpboot named after the MAC address of the target host machine (01-mac_address_of_target_ESXi_host), for example, 01-23-45-67-89-0a-bc. b Place a copy of (or a link to) the host's boot.
VMware ESXi Upgrade The following technical terms are used throughout the vSphere documentation set in discussions of installation and upgrade tasks. VIB A VIB is an ESXi software package. VMware and its partners package solutions, drivers, CIM providers, and applications that extend the ESXi platform as VIBs. VIBs are available in software depots. You can use VIBs to create and customize ISO images or to upgrade ESXi hosts by installing VIBs asynchronously onto the hosts.
VMware ESXi Upgrade VMware supports the following acceptance levels. VMwareCertified The VMwareCertified acceptance level has the most stringent requirements. VIBs with this level go through thorough testing fully equivalent to VMware in-house Quality Assurance testing for the same technology. Today, only I/O Vendor Program (IOVP) program drivers are published at this level. VMware takes support calls for VIBs with this acceptance level.
VMware ESXi Upgrade When you specify a target server by using --server=server_name, the server prompts you for a user name and password. Other connection options, such as a configuration file or session file, are supported. For a list of connection options, see Getting Started with vSphere Command-Line Interfaces, or run esxcli --help at the vCLI command prompt. Prerequisites Install vCLI or deploy the vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) virtual machine.
VMware ESXi Upgrade When you specify a target server by using --server=server_name, the server prompts you for a user name and password. Other connection options, such as a configuration file or session file, are supported. For a list of connection options, see Getting Started with vSphere Command-Line Interfaces, or run esxcli --help at the vCLI command prompt. Prerequisites Install vCLI or deploy the vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) virtual machine.
VMware ESXi Upgrade To determine whether an upgrade operation requires the host to be in maintenance mode, see Determine Whether an Update Requires the Host to Be in Maintenance Mode or to Be Rebooted Note If the host is a member of a vSAN cluster, and any virtual machine object on the host uses the "Number of failures to tolerate=0" setting in its storage policy, the host might experience unusual delays when entering maintenance mode.
VMware ESXi Upgrade When you specify a target server by using --server=server_name, the server prompts you for a user name and password. Other connection options, such as a configuration file or session file, are supported. For a list of connection options, see Getting Started with vSphere Command-Line Interfaces, or run esxcli --help at the vCLI command prompt. Prerequisites n Install vCLI or deploy the vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) virtual machine.
VMware ESXi Upgrade 4 Verify that the VIBs are installed on your ESXi host. esxcli --server=server_name software vib list Upgrade or Update a Host with Image Profiles You can upgrade or update a host with image profiles stored in a software depot that is accessible through a URL or in an offline ZIP depot. You can use the esxcli software profile update or esxcli software profile install command to upgrade or update an ESXi host.
VMware ESXi Upgrade n If the update requires a reboot, and if the host belongs to a VMware HA cluster, remove the host from the cluster or disable HA on the cluster. Procedure 1 Determine which VIBs are installed on the host. esxcli --server=server_name software vib list 2 Determine which image profiles are available in the depot. esxcli --server=server_name software sources profile list -depot=http://webserver/depot_name You can specify a proxy server by using the --proxy argument.
VMware ESXi Upgrade Option Description Install all new VIBs in a specified profile from a ZIP file stored locally on the target esxcli --server=server_name software profile install -depot=file://// -profile=profile_name Install all new VIBs from a ZIP file on the target server, copied into a datastore esxcli --server=server_name software profile install -depot=“[datastore_name]profile_ZIP_file" --profile=profile_name Install all new VIBs from a ZIP file cop
VMware ESXi Upgrade n If the update requires a reboot, and if the host belongs to a VMware HA cluster, remove the host from the cluster or disable HA on the cluster. Procedure u Install the ZIP file. esxcli --server=server_name software vib update -depot=/path_to_vib_ZIP/ZIP_file_name.zip Remove VIBs from a Host You can uninstall third-party VIBs or VMware VIBs from your ESXi host. VMware partners prepare third-party VIBs to provide management agents or asynchronously released drivers.
VMware ESXi Upgrade 4 Determine which VIBs are installed on the host. esxcli --server=server_name software vib list 5 Remove the VIB.
VMware ESXi Upgrade Procedure 1 2 Enter the installation or upgrade command, adding the --dry-run option. n esxcli --server=server_name software vib install --dry-run n esxcli --server=server_name software vib update --dry-run n esxcli --server=server_name software profile install --dry-run n esxcli --server=server_name software profile update --dry-run Review the output that is returned.
VMware ESXi Upgrade When you specify a target server by using --server=server_name, the server prompts you for a user name and password. Other connection options, such as a configuration file or session file, are supported. For a list of connection options, see Getting Started with vSphere Command-Line Interfaces, or run esxcli --help at the vCLI command prompt. Prerequisites Install vCLI or deploy the vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) virtual machine.
VMware ESXi Upgrade For example, in evaluation mode, you can use vSphere vMotion technology, the vSphere HA feature, the vSphere DRS feature, and other features. If you want to continue using these features, you must assign a license that supports them. The installable version of ESXi hosts is always installed in evaluation mode. ESXi Embedded is preinstalled on an internal storage device by your hardware vendor. It might be in evaluation mode or prelicensed.
VMware ESXi Upgrade n If you upgrade using the ISO the upgrade process saves the signatures of all new VIBs. This also applies to upgrades of vSphere Update Manager that use the ISO. If any old VIBs remain on the system the signatures of those VIBs still are not available and secure boot is not possible. For example, if the system uses a 3rd-party driver, and the VMware upgrade does not include a new version of the driver VIB, then the old VIB remains on the system after the upgrade.
VMware ESXi Upgrade You do not need to reconfigure log storage for ESXi hosts that use the default configuration, which stores logs in a scratch directory on the VMFS volume. For these hosts, ESXi 6.7 configures logs to best suit your installation, and provides enough space to accommodate log messages. Table 3‑11.
VMware ESXi Upgrade Option Description Syslog.global.logDirUnique Selecting this option creates a subdirectory with the name of the ESXi host under the directory specified by Syslog.global.LogDir. A unique directory is useful if the same NFS directory is used by multiple ESXi hosts. Syslog.global.LogHost Remote host to which syslog messages are forwarded and port on which the remote host receives syslog messages. You can include the protocol and the port, for example, ssl://hostName1:1514.
Using vSphere Auto Deploy to Reprovision Hosts 4 If a host was deployed using vSphere Auto Deploy, you can use vSphere Auto Deploy to reprovision the host with a new image profile that contains a different version of ESXi. You can use vSphere ESXi Image Builder to create and manage image profiles. Note If you upgrade the host to use an ESXi 6.0 or later image, the vSphere Auto Deploy server provisions the ESXi host with certificates that are signed by VMCA.
VMware ESXi Upgrade Table 4‑1. vSphere Auto Deploy Stores Information for Deployment Information Type Description Source of Information Image state The executable software to run on an ESXi host. Image profile, created with vSphere ESXi Image Builder. Configuration state The configurable settings that determine how the host is configured, for example, virtual switches and their settings, driver settings, boot parameters, and so on. Host profile, created by using the host profile UI.
VMware ESXi Upgrade Figure 4‑1. vSphere Auto Deploy Architecture Auto Deploy PowerCLI Host profiles and host customization Host profile UI Rules Engine Image Builder PowerCLI Image Profiles Auto Deploy server (Web server) Host profile engine ESXi host Plug-in Fetch of predefined image profiles and VIBs HTTP fetch of images/VIBs and host profiles (iPXE boot and update) VIBs and image profiles Public depot vSphere Auto Deploy server Serves images and host profiles to ESXi hosts.
VMware ESXi Upgrade Host profiles Define machine-specific configuration such as networking or storage setup. Use the host profile UI to create host profiles. You can create a host profile for a reference host and apply that host profile to other hosts in your environment for a consistent configuration. Host customization Stores information that the user provides when host profiles are applied to the host.
VMware ESXi Upgrade n If you want to use VLANs in your vSphere Auto Deploy environment, you must set up the end to end networking properly. When the host is PXE booting, the firmware driver must be set up to tag the frames with proper VLAN IDs. You must do this set up manually by making the correct changes in the UEFI/BIOS interface. You must also correctly configure the ESXi port groups with the correct VLAN IDs. Ask your network administrator how VLAN IDs are used in your environment.
VMware ESXi Upgrade 2 Configure the vSphere Auto Deploy service startup type. a Log in to your vCenter Server system by using the vSphere Web Client. b On the vSphere Web Client Home page, click Administration. c Under System Configuration click Services. d Select Auto Deploy, click the Actions menu, and select Edit Startup Type. n On Windows, the vSphere Auto Deploy service is disabled. In the Edit Startup Type window, select Manual or Automatic to enable vSphere Auto Deploy.
VMware ESXi Upgrade 6 Set up your DHCP server to point to the TFTP server on which the TFTP ZIP file is located. a Specify the TFTP Server's IP address in DHCP option 66, frequently called next-server. b Specify the boot file name, which is snponly64.efi.vmw-hardwired for UEFI or undionly.kpxe.vmw-hardwired for BIOS in the DHCP option 67, frequently called bootfilename.
VMware ESXi Upgrade You can type cmdlets, parameters, and parameter values in the PowerCLI shell. n Get help for any cmdlet by running Get-Helpcmdlet_name. n Remember that PowerShell is not case sensitive. n Use tab completion for cmdlet names and parameter names. n Format any variable and cmdlet output by using Format-List or Format-Table, or their short forms fl or ft. For more information, run the Get-Help Format-List cmdlet.
VMware ESXi Upgrade Assigning license keys through the vSphere Web Client and assigning licensing by using PowerCLI cmdlets function differently. Assign license keys with the vSphere Web Client You can assign license keys to a host when you add the host to the vCenter Server system or when the host is managed by a vCenter Server system. Assign license keys with LicenseDataManager PowerCLI You can specify a set of license keys to be added to a set of hosts.
VMware ESXi Upgrade 5 Update the license data for the data center with the LicenseData object and verify that the license is associated with the host container. $licenseDataManager.UpdateAssociatedLicenseData($hostContainer.Uid, $licenseData) $licenseDataManager.QueryAssociatedLicenseData($hostContainer.Uid) 6 Provision one or more hosts with vSphere Auto Deploy and assign them to the data center or to the cluster that you assigned the license data to.
VMware ESXi Upgrade Procedure 1 2 Place the host in maintenance mode. Host Type Action Host is part of a DRS cluster VMware DRS migrates virtual machines to appropriate hosts when you place the host in maintenance mode. Host is not part of a DRS cluster You must migrate all virtual machines to different hosts and place each host in maintenance mode. Reboot the host. The host shuts down. When the host reboots, it uses the image profile that the vSphere Auto Deploy server provides.
VMware ESXi Upgrade 2 Determine the location of a public software depot that contains the image profile that you want to use, or define a custom image profile with vSphere ESXi Image Builder. 3 Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot to add the software depot that contains the image profile to the PowerCLI session. Depot Type Cmdlet Remote depot Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot depot_url. ZIP file a Download the ZIP file to a local file path or create a mount point local to the PowerCLI machine.
VMware ESXi Upgrade 7 Reboot the host to provision it with the new image profile. Write a Rule and Assign a Host Profile to Hosts vSphere Auto Deploy can assign a host profile to one or more hosts. The host profile might include information about storage configuration, network configuration, or other characteristics of the host. If you add a host to a cluster, that cluster's host profile is used. In many cases, you assign a host to a cluster instead of specifying a host profile explicitly.
VMware ESXi Upgrade What to do next n Assign a host already provisioned with vSphere Auto Deploy to the new host profile by performing compliance test and repair operations on those hosts. For more information, see Test and Repair Rule Compliance. n Power on unprovisioned hosts to provision them with the host profile. Test and Repair Rule Compliance When you add a rule to the vSphere Auto Deploy rule set or make changes to one or more rules, hosts are not updated automatically.
VMware ESXi Upgrade 5 Run the cmdlet that tests rule set compliance for the host, and bind the return value to a variable for later use. $tr = Test-DeployRuleSetCompliance MyEsxi42 6 Examine the differences between the contents of the rule set and configuration of the host. $tr.itemlist The system returns a table of current and expected items if the host for which you want to test the new rule set compliance is compliant with the active rule set.
Collect Logs to Troubleshoot ESXi Hosts 5 You can collect installation or upgrade log files for ESXi. If an installation or upgrade fails, checking the log files can help you identify the source of the failure. Solution 1 Enter the vm-support command in the ESXi Shell or through SSH. 2 Navigate to the /var/tmp/ directory. 3 Retrieve the log files from the .tgz file. VMware, Inc.
