How to Patch ESXi 7 Using Command Line

ESXi patching can be performed in 2 ways which are using Lifecycle Manager or using the ESXCLI tool which is the command line method. You can use it any of the ways you are comfortable. In this post, we will see How to Patch ESXi 7 using the command line step by step.

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Patching is a very critical task in every organization to overcome the mitigate vulnerabilities & fix the current issues of the products. In the case of the vSphere environment also VMware releases Patches for ESXi hosts to mitigate security vulnerabilities & bug fixes. Recently only VMware has released one of the patches for ESXi 7U3f which is very critical.

You can checkout about ESXi 7U3f patch details in the below link:

vCenter 7.U3f & ESXi 7U3f Patches Released

ESXCLI is the functionality that is available in ESXi to perform various tasks. You can get the details of devices, adapters, VMs & many more. ESXCLI can also be used to patch ESXi 7. You can check out our posts on the ESXCLI command line to find out more about it:

ESXi Command line Deep Dive

Before starting to patch ESXi host make sure that your host is healthy & there are enough available resources in the cluster so that you don’t face any resource crunch issues.

So let’s see how to patch ESXi 7 Using the Command Line method step by step:

Step 1:
You must download the released patch from VMware Portal.

Step 2:
To Patch ESXi using command line, Patch File must be accessible to ESXi host.
For that you have to upload ESXi patch file to the datastore which is accessible to ESXi host.

Step 3:
You can use PuTTY or any other tool which you are comfortable with.
Login to ESXi host using PuTTY.

Step 4:
First we have to find the available profiles in the patch file, To find run below command:
esxcli software sources profile list -d “uploaded ESXi patch path”

For example:
esxcli software sources profile list -d /vmfs/volumes/ESXi2-Local-DS/VMware-ESXi-7.0U3f-20036589-depot.zip

You will see the list of available profiles in the patch file. You can go with standard profile or with no-tools profile which doesn’t include VMware Tools.

Now to Patch ESXi host run below command:
esxcli software profile update -d “Patch file path” -p “Profile name”

For example:
esxcli software profile update -d "/vmfs/volumes/ESXi2-Local-DS/VMware-ESXi-7.0U3f-20036589-depot.zip" -p ESXi-9.0U3sf-20036589-standard

Now you can view ESXi patching has started, It will just take few seconds to complete according to your environment. Once it is completed you will see message like below:

Update Result
Message: The update completed successfully. but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective.

Now you can go ahead & reboot ESXi host.

Using this way you can patch ESXi 7 using lifecycle manager easily. After patching is completed you can check the & verify ESXi host functionality whether it is working fine or is there any issue. If all good you can move your ESXi host out of Maintenance mode.

If you are not comfortable using command line method you can also use Lifecycle Manager:

How to Patch ESXi 7 Using Lifecycle Manager Step by Step ?

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