Upgrade ESXi To The Latest Version Without Any Software Download

Hey, it's ESXi upgrade time. Previously we have described many supported ways to upgrade VMware ESXi hypervisor. Via ISO or CD-ROM,  or via vSphere update Manager (if you're using vCenter server). However, if you want a really simple upgrade ESXi To The Latest Version Without Any Software Download, and without ISO or CD-ROM, just follow this guide.

Upgrading ESXi to the latest version without any software download may be useful for standalone, isolated hosts. Or hosts which are used in some lab workloads. It can be hosts running the free version of VMware ESXi Hypervisor as well. However, this procedure is a supported way of upgrading by VMware (if you're on support contract).

Our procedure will work only if the host has an internet connectivity. For hosts which are isolated, you can always download the VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) Offline Bundle, place the file on an accessible datastore and proceed with an offline update.

Note: If you're on uncertified hardware, which has unsupported NICs, you might be interested in a fact that there is a way to revert back in case you lose network connectivity after the upgrade.  Check our article about How to revert back ESXi version.

If you're experienced VMware user I think that you already know your way, but this post is meant to be for users or admins starting with virtualization.

Now, let's get back to our Upgrade ESXi To The Latest Version Without Any Software Download procedure. We'll need to make sure that all VMs are shut down before we proceed with the upgrade.

Upgrade ESXi To The Latest Version Without Any Software Download

Step 0: Put your host into a maintenance mode

esxcli system maintenanceMode set –enable true

Step 1: Create a new firewall rule

esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e true -r httpClient

Step 2: Enter this command in the SSH session

esxcli software profile update -p ESXi-6.7.0-20181002001-standard -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml

Note that it might take some time as the process has to download the file to the host and then initiate the upgrade. Time for a cup of coffee…

Example of the window (this screenshot is from a previous ESXi version) where you should see the message saying that “The update completed successfully”…

Step 3: change back the firewall rule.

esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e false -r httpClient

You should see a very long list of vibs getting installed, and at the very top, you should have a message saying that the host must be restarted.

Step 4: Restart the host.

reboot

That's all.

You have successfully upgraded the host to the latest ESXi version without any software download or without going to VMware site to fetch the ESXi offline bundle. It's pretty convenient, but as being said, it's rather suitable for isolated ESXi hosts without being managed by a vCenter server.

What's New in ESXi 6.7 U1?

• ESXi 6.7 Update 1 adds a Microsemi Smart PQI (smartpqi) LSU plug-in tо support attached disk management operations on the HPE ProLiant Gen10 Smart Array Controller.
• ESXi 6.7 Update 1 adds Quick Boot support for Intel i40en and ixgben Enhanced Network Stack (ENS) drivers, and extends support for HPE ProLiant and Synergy servers. For more information, see VMware knowledge base article 52477.
• ESXi 6.7 Update 1 enables a precheck when upgrading ESXi hosts by using the software profile commands of the ESXCLI command set to ensure upgrade compatibility.
• ESXi 6.7 Update 1 adds nfnic driver support for Cisco UCS Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE).
• ESXi 6.7 Update 1 adds support for Namespace Globally Unique Identifier (NGUID) in the NVMe driver.
• With ESXi 6.7 Update 1, you can run the following storage ESXCLI commands to enable status LED on Intel VMD based NVMe SSDs without downloading Intel CLI:esxcli storage core device set -l locator -d
  esxcli storage core device set -l error -d
  esxcli storage core device set -l off -d
• ESXi 6.7 Update 1 adds APIs to avoid ESXi host reboot while configuring ProductLocker and to enable the management of VMware Tools configuration by the CloudAdmin role in cloud SDDC without the need of access to Host Profiles.
• ESXi 6.7 Update 1 adds the advanced configuration option EnablePSPLatencyPolicy to claim devices with latency based Round Robin path selection policy. The EnablePSPLatencyPolicy configuration option does not affect existing device or vendor-specific claim rules. You can also enable logging to display paths configuration when using the EnablePSPLatencyPolicy option.
• With ESXi 6.7 Update 1, you can use vSphere vMotion to migrate virtual machines configured with NVIDIA virtual GPU types to other hosts with compatible NVIDIA Tesla GPUs. For more information on the supported NVIDIA versions, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.
• With ESXi 6.7 Update 1, Update Manager Download Service (UMDS) does not require a Database and the installation procedure is simplified.

Check the latest release notes for further information from VMware.

VMware vSphere 6.7 U1 Download links and press releases:

Buy: 

VMware vSphere 6.7 U1 Essentials PLUS – full vSphere suite for SMB
VMware vSphere 6.7 U1 Essentials – Good way to start, for small shops.
Per Incident Support Click Here

VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 6.7 U1 Download

More posts from ESX Virtualization:

• What is ESXi Compatibility Checker?
• What is The Difference between VMware vSphere, ESXi and vCenter
• How to Configure VMware High Availability (HA) Cluster
• What is VMware Orchestrated Restart?
• What is VMware Platform Service Controller (PSC)?
• How To Reset ESXi Root Password via Microsoft AD
• VMware Workstation 15 and Fusion 11 Major Releases

Stay tuned through RSS, and social media channels (Twitter, FB, YouTube)