easy upgrade 6.0 to 6.5 esxi

[+BudMan MVC]

So now that first patch for 6.5 has become available.. 6.5 GA is in the depot.  So very easy to upgrade your esxi 6 to 6.5

 

I just did mine..  This does force loss of the fat client for management.. But the the web gui is now very robust

 

esxcli software profile update -p ESXi-6.5.0-4564106-standard -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml

 

Reboot, then took it to the lastest patch.

 

esxcli software profile update -p ESXi-6.5.0-20170104001-standard -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml

 

Reboot and on the latest and greatest..

 

edit:  Seems the old client can still connect.. Have to play with to see if can still use it for actual management.

 

 

[Skiver Veteran]

Nice!

 

I'm upgrading out vCenter tomorrow to 6.5 so this will follow soon. I'm going to miss the thick client through all of this though

[Co-ords]

The new HTML5 client is great. I am running the VMware fling & it's performance is outstanding. It's not yet feature complete but it's getting there fast. Check it out here

[Mando]

im trying my best to let go of the full fat client on 6 (its hard to let go in something so bombproof), in prep for upgrading at end of month on our estate. 

 

our webend of esxi 6.0 went awol this morning, and the only way I could think of resolving was to reboot the VcenterVA via the fat client. 

 

 

[Skiver Veteran]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the bigger problem I have with the new HTML5 client is that it's only supported when running vCenter VA, which in turn is also only supported by running on an ESX host? We run mostly Hyper-V here so it's impractical to fire up an ESX host JUST to run VA. The ESX hosts we do have are all R&D/CS based stuff and not really the most ideal place to stick a production VM so unless they change something I'm stuck running Windows vCenter.

[+BudMan MVC]

No you do not need to run vcenter - I am not.. I have stand alone esxi host.  No vcenter VA or other vcenter at all.  This allows you to directly admin the host without having to use the fat client.

 

Lets not confuse things here with vcenter.  Last I checked vcenter was not free.. I am talking about running free esxi, with just managment of the host via the built in ui, no need for any flings.. The fling co-ords linked to was for the vcenter.. There is another fling for just the host without vcenter.

 

But again you do not need a fling, you do not need vcenter.  Just your standalone esxi host.

 

if you are in a production setup then yeah your prob using vcenter.. Then again you shouldn't be taking my advice on how easy it is to upgrade - this is for a home/lab setup.  You would need to follow your company policy on updating esxi in a production/work setup.  Follow all your change control, do some research on what it might break, etc. etc..

[Skiver Veteran]

2 hours ago, BudMan said:

No you do not need to run vcenter - I am not.. I have stand alone esxi host.  No vcenter VA or other vcenter at all.  This allows you to directly admin the host without having to use the fat client.

 

Lets not confuse things here with vcenter.  Last I checked vcenter was not free.. I am talking about running free esxi, with just managment of the host via the built in ui, no need for any flings.. The fling co-ords linked to was for the vcenter.. There is another fling for just the host without vcenter.

 

But again you do not need a fling, you do not need vcenter.  Just your standalone esxi host.

 

if you are in a production setup then yeah your prob using vcenter.. Then again you shouldn't be taking my advice on how easy it is to upgrade - this is for a home/lab setup.  You would need to follow your company policy on updating esxi in a production/work setup.  Follow all your change control, do some research on what it might break, etc. etc..

 

Absolutely, this is just an option we can look at.

[SouthGate]

VMware Workstation still connects perfectly with ESXi 6.5. You get some basic management options for the server and the ability to still download/upload VM's which is great because I tend to build machines locally for testing, then upload them to production on the remote ESXi server.

[Stokkolm]

On ‎2‎/‎17‎/‎2017 at 6:28 PM, Broughton said:

VMware Workstation still connects perfectly with ESXi 6.5. You get some basic management options for the server and the ability to still download/upload VM's which is great because I tend to build machines locally for testing, then upload them to production on the remote ESXi server.

VMware Workstation is not the vSphere Client, which I believe is what Budman was talking about.

[+BudMan MVC]

No I was not talking about workstation or vcenter.. There is a fat client - that still works..

 

You can grab the latest 6.0 update3 build 5112508

https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2089791

 

Looks like this

 

Or the current 6.5 have the ui already built in and you do not need the fling.. just hit your esxi host via its name or IP

https://esxi.local.lan/ui/#/login

 

My fqdn is esxi.local.lan

[Stokkolm]

@BudMan I wanted to ask you a question about the depot. Is there a VMware site that lists the contents of the depot? I've seen a ton of bloggers reference the upgrade process from the depot, but I've never actually found a depot listing anywhere. I've always wondered how I can figure out the command if I wanted to upgrade to a newer version than is listed in an older blog article that I was looking at. 

 

Is there a listing of packages somewhere that exist in VMware's online depot? 

[+BudMan MVC]

Sure you can..  Just ask for the list vs installing the specific file you want

 

So from the depot I pointed too above I can find all the vibs in that depot..

[root@esxi:~] esxcli software sources vib list --depot=https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml
Name                           Version                                Vendor  Creation Date  Acceptance Level  Status   
-----------------------------  -------------------------------------  ------  -------------  ----------------  ---------
esx-base                       5.0.0-1.18.768111                      VMware  2012-06-29     VMwareCertified   Downgrade
ehci-ehci-hcd                  1.0-3vmw.600.1.26.3380124              VMware  2015-12-28     VMwareCertified   Downgrade
net-bnx2                       2.0.15g.v50.11-7vmw.510.1.12.1065491   VMware  2013-03-23     VMwareCertified   Downgrade
esx-base                       5.0.0-1.13.702118                      VMware  2012-04-30     VMwareCertified   Downgrade
esx-base                       5.5.0-3.71.3116895                     VMware  2015-10-02     VMwareCertified   Downgrade
scsi-fnic                      1.5.0.3-1vmw.510.0.0.799733            VMware  2012-08-02     VMwareCertified   Downgrade
lsu-lsi-lsi-mr3-plugin         1.0.0-2vmw.600.0.11.2809209            VMware  2015-06-11     VMwareCertified   Downgrade
scsi-megaraid-sas              5.34-9vmw.550.1.28.1892794             VMware  2014-06-12     VMwareCertified   Downgrade
ata-pata-serverworks           0.4.3-3vmw.600.0.0.2494585             VMware  2015-02-06     VMwareCertified   Downgrade
ixgben                         1.0.0.0-9vmw.650.0.14.5146846          VMW     2017-03-03     VMwareCertified   Installed
net-mlx4-en                    1.9.7.0-1vmw.600.0.0.2494585           VMware  2015-02-06     VMwareCertified   Downgrade
ata-pata-sil680                0.4.8-3vmw.550.0.0.1331820             VMware  2013-09-19     VMwareCertified   Downgrade

 

<snipped - its quite long!!>

 

 

scsi-mptspi                    4.23.01.00-5vmw.500.3.63.2312428       VMware  2014-11-24     VMwareCertified   Downgrade
scsi-qla4xxx                   5.01.03.2-7vmw.600.0.0.2494585         VMware  2015-02-06     VMwareCertified   Downgrade
vsanhealth                     6.0.0-3000000.3.0.3.66.5277826         VMware  2017-03-31     VMwareCertified   Downgrade
vsanhealth                     6.0.0-3000000.3.0.2.46.4510825         VMware  2016-10-14     VMwareCertified   Downgrade
[root@esxi:~]

 

But if your looking for all the profiles then you would call that out..

 

[root@esxi:~] esxcli software sources profile list --depot=https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml
Name                              Vendor        Acceptance Level
--------------------------------  ------------  ----------------
ESXi-5.5.0-20131204001-standard   VMware, Inc.  PartnerSupported
ESXi-5.0.0-20130804001-no-tools   VMware, Inc.  PartnerSupported
ESXi-5.5.0-20160804001-no-tools   VMware, Inc.  PartnerSupported
ESXi-6.0.0-20150901001s-no-tools  VMware, Inc.  PartnerSupported
ESXi-5.1.0-799733-standard        VMware, Inc.  PartnerSupported
ESXi-6.0.0-20170202001-no-tools   VMware, Inc.  PartnerSupported

 

<snipped - its quite long!!>

ESXi-5.5.0-20160901001s-standard  VMware, Inc.  PartnerSupported
ESXi-6.0.0-20170201001s-no-tools  VMware, Inc.  PartnerSupported
ESXi-6.0.0-20150504001-no-tools   VMware, Inc.  PartnerSupported
[root@esxi:~]

 

Does that help - what exactly are you looking for?  esxcli is very powerful

[Stokkolm]

Beautiful, thank you!