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ESXi Command Line Upgrade Series vSphere 7

How to Patch ESXi 7 Using Command

Line
Patch ESXi 7 Using Command line method

Mayur Parmar   • September 12, 2022 0  6,147  3 minutes read

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.

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

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ESXCLI is the functionality that is available in ESXi to perform various tasks. You
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can get the details of devices, adapters, VMs & many more. ESXCLI can also be
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1/4/24, 8:43 PM How to Patch ESXi 7 Using Command Line | Mastering VMware

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.

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1/4/24, 8:43 PM How to Patch ESXi 7 Using Command Line | Mastering VMware

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:
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esxcli software sources profile list -d /vmfs/volumes/ESXi2-Local-DS/V
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1/4/24, 8:43 PM How to Patch ESXi 7 Using Command Line | Mastering VMware

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/VMwar

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.

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1/4/24, 8:43 PM How to Patch ESXi 7 Using Command Line | Mastering VMware

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 ?

That’s it for Today Friends. I hope you liked reading this post & If you find
anything more to be added or removed feel free to write it in our comments. If
you find it useful You are Feel free to share this on social media to help others
& spread knowledge.
If you have any queries on anything you are free to write it in our comments
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