How to Upgrade ESXi 6.0 to 6.5 via CLI [On Line]

How to Upgrade ESXi 6.0 to 6.5 via CLI [On Line]

This is a follow-up learning post on a post we did recently, where we have upgraded an ESXi host via an ISO image. Today, we’ll learn how to upgrade ESXi 6.0 via Command line interface (CLI). The process of ESXi upgrade has been already documented on this blog, for previous releases (ESXi 5.x > ESXi 6.0), and we used the .ZIP upgrade file. You can read this how-to post here. But today we’ll learn How to Upgrade ESXi 6.0 to 6.5 via CLI and we’ll do another method which consists of upgrading via a VMware Online depot.

Why would you want to upgrade you ESXi host via VMware online depot? It is easy to upgrade an ESXi host and also, for users who do not have easy access to the GA Offline bundle (Free ESXi users).  You’ll need an internet connection on the host you’ll want to upgrade. If you have a host which does not have an internet connection, then you can simply use one of the two above.

How to Upgrade ESXi 6.0 to 6.5 via CLI – The steps:

Step 1: Enable SSH and connect to your ESXi host via Putty (or alternative)

Step 2: Enable firewall rule (allow) for web traffic

esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e true -r httpClient

like this…

Step 2: Run this command to see the VMware online depot and the different profiles you can upgrade from.

esxcli software sources profile list -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml | grep -i ESXi-6

to list available profiles. (or do just the same but with …”ESXi-6.5″ at the end of the command, to see just the 2 profiles corresponding to ESXi 6.5).

There are Two profiles which interests us.. Let’s pickup the one with “no-tools”…

Step 3: Run the upgrade with this command:

Update: For the latest ESXi 6.5 Update 1 run this command instead:

esxcli software profile update -p ESXi-6.5.0-20170702001-standard -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml

Or this is the original command for ESXi 6.5.

esxcli software profile update -p ESXi-6.5.0-4564106-no-tools -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml

like this….

Step 4: Re-enable the firewall with this command:

esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e false -r httpClient

Reboot the host to complete the upgrade > Exit the Maintenance mode.

We’re done.

Here is a video detailing the steps.

Please note that in the video I only listed the ESXi 6.5 versions from online depot…  so I actually used this command to filter the available online profiles:

esxcli software sources profile list -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml | grep -i ESXi-6.5

My video…

You can check all posts about vSphere 6.5 on my vSphere 6.5 Series