How to upgrade ESXi 6.5 to ESXi 6.7

VMware

VMware released ESXi 6.7 a little while ago, but it’s only been here recently have I started deploying it in my home and work lab environments. Below are two ways to easily upgrade your ESXi 6.5 hosts to ESXi 6.7 using the command line or by using the VMware ESXi offline bundle.

How to update ESXi 6.5 to 6.7 via command line

  1. Place the host you are about to upgrade into Maintenance Mode.
  2. Now SSH into the host using PuTTY (or any other SSH client/terminal).
  3. Type the following command to open the firewall for outgoing HTTP requests: 
    esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e true -r httpClient
  4. Type the following command to upgrade to the latest ESXi 6.7 Build 9484548 (latest as of writing) 
    esxcli software profile update -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml -p ESXi-6.7.0-20180804001-standard
  5. After the update has finished disable the HTTP firewall rule by typing: 
    esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e false -r httpClient
  6. And finally, reboot the ESXi host to complete the upgrade. 
    reboot

Once the host comes back online, remove it from Maintenance mode and you’re good to go. It also wouldn’t hurt to also disable SSH when you’re done, for security purposes.

Tip: To view a list of all available ESXi profiles type the following in your SSH session:

esxcli software sources profile list --depot=https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml

How to upgrade VMware ESXi 6.5 to ESXi 6.7 using an Offline Bundle

Using the offline bundle works similar in the way of the command line but saves you from having to re-download the upgrade file for each VMware ESXi host. This is nice when you have more than just a couple hosts or limited bandwidth.

  1. First download the ESXi 6.7 offline bundle zip file.
    VMware ESXi 6.7 offline bundle
  2. Upload the VMware-ESXi-6.7.0-8169922-depot.zip file to a datastore that is accessible by all your host(s).
    VMware ESXi 6.7 datastore
  3. Next place the host you plan on upgrading into Maintenance Mode.
  4. SSH into your host using PuTTY (or other client/terminal).
  5. Type the following command, replace “DATASTORE” with the name of your datastore you uploaded the VMware-ESXi-6.7.0-8169922-depot.zip file to. 
    esxcli software vib update -d /vmfs/volumes/DATASTORE/VMware-ESXi-6.7.0-8169922-depot.zip
  6. Once the above completes reboot your host by typing: 
    reboot

Once the host has rebooted, take it out of Maintenance Mode and move on to your next host. That’s it!

Similar Posts

  • How to upgrade vCenter server appliance

    VMware
    2 Comments

    Prior to VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.x, upgrading or patching vCSA was as simple as a few button clicks in the appliance UI. Gone are those days, as VMware has replaced the appliance UI with a DCUI and the web based install wizard during setup.

    The good news is, upgrading or patching the vCSA 6.x is still pretty simple via the command line!

    Read More “How to upgrade vCenter server appliance”

  • VMware Horizon View 5.3 has been announced

    VMware
    1 Comment

    Horizon View 5.2 is receiving an update to 5.3! Doesn’t sound like much, but in that tiny dot number increase VMware has in fact brought a number improvements and features to Horizon View.

    In a nut shell, some features Horizon View 5.3 brings is the ability to connect to a virtual desktop from any HTML5 capable web browser (yes, even Chromebook!), ability to bring full workstation class user experience with 3D graphics, deploy Windows Server 2008 as a desktop, as well as completely rewritten the Windows client with support for Windows 8.1 and a new iOS7 client too.

    In more detail, Horizon View 5.3 brings…

    Read More “VMware Horizon View 5.3 has been announced”

  • Easy ESXi 5.5 upgrade via command line

    VMware
    17 Comments

    ESXi 5.5 was just released general availability (GA) on Sunday (9/22) and I’m itching to upgrade the home lab to run the latest version with all it’s goodies. I wanted to try upgrading my hosts without having to go through the same process that I followed setting up ESXi on the NUC in the first place, injecting custom NIC drivers, etc.

    Enter the command line…

    1. Move all VM’s from the host and then put the host into Maintenance Mode.
    2. Go to the Configuration tab > Security Profile and Enable SSH under Services.
      ssh enabled
    3. Under Firewall, enable httpClient (outbound http).
      httpClient enable
    4. Open PuTTY (or other SSH client) and SSH into your host.

      5. Read More “Easy ESXi 5.5 upgrade via command line”

  • How to update VMware Windows VM’s DNS using PowerCLI

    VMware
    4 Comments

    This post will show you how to update a VMware Windows virtual machine’s DNS IP addresses using PowerCLI.

    You’ll also see how I went from a starting point to a fully working script – all thanks to the awesome #vCommunity!

    Here at work we’ve been doing a number of networking, AD, and DNS changes. In doing so, our DNS IP address have changed. Changing the DNS settings for our workstations was easy, simply edit the DHCP scope.

    The servers on the other hand all had static IP’s and static DNS IP’s entered, each of which needed to be updated.

    Read More “How to update VMware Windows VM’s DNS using PowerCLI”

  • HTML5 Embedded Host Client, this looks promising

    VMware
    0 Comments

    It’s no secret many people have really disliked the vSphere web client, it’s very sluggish, clunky, and based on flash (flash comes with it’s own security issues). It was rumored and highly hoped that vSphere 6 might be re-written in HTML5, but sadly this didn’t and hasn’t happened yet. While vSphere 6 did improve a bit on the web client the issues many people have had with it in the past still remain today.

    Enter the VMware HTML5 Embedded Host Client fling. I’ve been using and following this fling for a while now and have really enjoyed it and with each release it keeps getting better and better.

    The Embedded Host Client fling is based on HTML5 which allows it works great across all kinds of platforms, it’s fast, responsive, and doesn’t require any plug-ins – YES the VM console works great. If this happens to be a look of what’s to come in a new VMware vSphere web client, then a client is looking very promising!

    If you haven’t tried it yet, you should. It’s extremely easy to install and doesn’t even require a reboot just follow these simple instructions.

    Read More “HTML5 Embedded Host Client, this looks promising”

  • VMware ESXi 5 home lab upgrade

    Home Lab, VMware
    54 Comments

    In the past I’ve been using a single server to run my VMware ESXi home lab. it was slow, old, big and loud. I’ve been meaning to upgrade my home lab for a while and just never got around to it, until now! When looking for new hardware I wanted the servers to be as compact as possible, quiet, and low energy usage as possible while still having some horsepower.

    I debated on going the whitebox solution as I build all my own desktops anyway, I also looked at several other solutions such as the HP ML310e server, Shuttle XH61V barebones machine, but ultimately decided to go with two Intel NUC i5’s.

    Intel NUC i5 and 16GB ram

    Intel NUC i5 DC53427HYE Features:

    • Uses very little energy
    • Completely quiet
    • Supports up to 16GB RAM
    • A dual core CPU that scores nearly 3,600 in PassMark benchmarking
    • Includes vPro which allows me to easily run both NUC’s headless
    • Extremely small, nearly 4 1/2″ inch square footprint

    Read More “VMware ESXi 5 home lab upgrade”

Leave a Reply to RODRIGO TRALESKI Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

10 Comments

  2. Hello,
    I have esxi running remotely on commodity hardware. Unfortunately, the esxi web interface does not even show me the board type.
    Will the upgrade procedure check hardware support or do I risk having a dead server after upgrade?

    Reply

  4. Does this same process apply if vCenter is installed.? Do you simply update each host manually and it won’t break anything with vCenter? I’ve never done a upgrade to existing setup with vCenter, only fresh setups.

    Reply

  5. Whoops. It doesn’t seem to see my datastores any longer and all the machines have been renamed to two digit numbers. Looks like I’ve got a bunch of work ahead of me. :(

    Reply

    1. It’s happened with me too! I don’t whether this procedure is correct. For my luck, I’m doing that on the test machine.

      Reply

  7. Sometimes when you updates old version you get the error “Could not find a trusted signer.”
    Why – ask VMWare ?!

    Solution – try with esxcli –no-sig-check

    Reply