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Easily upgrade ESXi 5.x to the latest ESXi 6.0 via CLI

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I have received quite a few demands for how to update standalone ESXi hosts via the command line. For most people it's probably no brainer, but for new folks this might not be so obvious. So for those of you who are looking to update ESXi 5.x to the latest release which is the ESXi 6.0, then you can simply watch this short video where I'm detailing the steps. It's basically a 3 step process to easily upgrade ESXi 5.x to the latest ESXi 6.0 CLI.

How to upgrade ESXi 5.x to the latest ESXi 6.0?

Update: I need to add a correction to this post. VMware now recommends using “esxcli software update profile” command instead, for UPGRADES. As with this command you have a possibility to specify the image profile within the upgrade package. See an updated section below this post… So this commands below works, they are simple, but not supported by VMware. The “esxcli software update profile” command allows to pick a image profile within the upgrade package (usually there is 4 of them), but adds a bit of complexity. Not much though…

1. Download the file called update-from-esxi6.0-6.0_update02.zip from My VMware portal. It should be available when you sign-up for a trial of VMware vSphere 6.0 together with the ESXi 6.0 iso file.

2. Upload this file to the datastore visible by your ESXi host.

How to upgrade ESXi

3. Put your host in maintenance mode (right click > enter maintenance mode) and connect via putty. Note that SSh must be enabled. (configuration > security profile > properties > ssh). Now run this command to update the host:

esxcli software profile update -d /vmfs/volumes/<your_datastore>/update-from-esxi6.0-6.0_update02.zip -p ESXi-6.0.0-20160302001-standard

so in my case

esxcli software profile update -d /vmfs/volumes/drobo/update-from-esxi6.0-6.0_update02.zip -p ESXi-6.0.0-20160302001-standard

How to patch ESXi host

4. Reboot your host and exit maintenance mode.

Here is the video detailing the process of upgrading ESXi 5.x to the latest release which is ESXi 5.5 Update 1. Best to watch in HD, as usually.

Update:

As above, from previous release, with more details which profile to choose from….. (there are four)

Let's do an UPGRADE of ESXi 5.5 to ESXi 6.0 via “esxcli software profile update” command.

Step 1: Connect via putty. Note that I'll use that latest ESXi 6.0 update zip file for this post.

esxcli software sources profile list -d /vmfs/volumes/<your_volume>/ESXi600-201601001.zip

so in our case…

Upgrade ESXi 5.x to the latest ESXi 6.x

Step 2: Then type

esxcli software profile update -d /vmfs/volumes/<your_volume>/ESXi600-201601001.zip -p <profile-image>

so in my case:

esxcli software profile update -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/ESXi600-201601001.zip -p ESXi-6.0.0-20160101001s-standard

(note that you could easily pick other 3 image profiles…. It's just one example here..)

how to upgrade ESXi 5.x to 6.x

check if any error messages….. then reboot…

How to upgrade ESXi 5.x to 6.x via image profile command

and here is a new video detailing the steps …

If you want to check what's new in vSphere 6.0 then you should check my vSphere 6.0 page. You might also be interested in installing custom vibs, for example for unsupported Realtec NIC drivers. I wrote a post about it here. Realtek 8169 NIC in ESXi 5.5 not detected by default – install a VIB.

Enjoy… -:)

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About Vladan SEGET

This website is maintained by Vladan SEGET. Vladan is as an Independent consultant, professional blogger, vExpert x16, Veeam Vanguard x9, VCAP-DCA/DCD, ESX Virtualization site has started as a simple bookmarking site, but quickly found a large following of readers and subscribers.

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Comments

  1. Omur says

    Hello, I’m trying to upgrade my esxi5.0.0 to 5.5.5 and I’m getting this error. I tried google but couldn’t find anything. Can you please help?

    Thanks.

    ~ # esxcli software vib update -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/update-from-esxi5.5-5.5_update02-2068190.zip
    [DependencyError]
    VIB VMware_bootbank_esx-base_5.5.0-2.33.2068190 requires esx-xlibs, but the requirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile.
    Please refer to the log file for more details.
    ~ #

  2. Teodoro Galan Cueto says

    Hey I follow these steps.

    the upgrade complete with -f options. but after the host reboot VMs won’t start giving this error:

    Transport (VMDB) error -45: Failed to connect to peer process.

    • Paco says

      Found a solution after fighting with this all day.

      Download the latest zip: ESXi550-201410001.zip
      Then extract this file vib20esx-xlibsVMware_bootbank_esx-xlibs_5.5.0-0.0.1331820.vib
      Upload it to your esxi, then install with:
      esxcli software vib install -v /path/to/file/VMware_bootbank_esx-xlibs_5.5.0-0.0.1331820.vib
      You’ll need to reboot, then your vm’s should start.

      • vasili439 says

        Paco, I want to say THANK YOU!!! You did a really great job! Now my VMs is up and running! Thank you!

  3. Tex says

    Cheers for the article!

    I’m looking after a small vSphere environment that consists of 2 Dell R710 physical hosts running ESXi 5.0.0 Build 1489271. I administer it via my Essentials Plus kit and vSphere running on one of my VM’s.
    Am I able to use your process as described to upgrade both hosts to the latest version of 5.5? Or would you suggest another way?

    I’ve been holding off on dong such a major upgrade to the Hypervisor level of the entire system as I’ve been a tad nervous about doing it with 13 VM’s running across them and 120 users relying on them 😉

    I will be OK with upgrading the vSphere install to the latest version on my VM, I’m pretty confident there … its just that ESXi install on each Host that bothers me 😉

    Thanks for the article 😉

  4. Kayne says

    Thank you! This worked well for me when Update Manager had failed. In some ways this can be even easier than using Update Manager.

    Pro tips if you have a lot of hosts in the same cluster:
    – allow remote SSH to your hosts
    – put the offline zip on a shared LUN
    – run the esxcli command per this article
    – it’s best to update only 1 host at a time
    – you can pretty much copy/paste and use the same command for each host in the cluster (assuming they all see the same shared LUN)

  7. John says

    I wanted to send out a massive thank you to both Vladan and Paco – your instructional video Vladan along with Paco’s advice was just what I needed, and saved me a lot of frustration this weekend. Seriously, thank you!

  8. Brian says

    The -f at end of command worked for me to resolve the “requirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile” error. Thanks!

    • Vladan SEGET says

      Sorry about that. The “install” will wipe any custom drivers, where the “update” don’t. So I would go with the update command….

  12. mTorres says

    Hi Vladan,

    I’ve updated my ESXi 5.0 host to 6.0 without fear using your blog articles about this topic (thanks!). Unfortunatelly I have an RDM LUN formatted with UFS (freeBSD) and since the upgrade, ESXi is automatically mounting this device for the host and my guest FreeBSD VM can’t boot because the device is locked by the ESXi itself (there is no lck file to be found). I can see it if I call esxcli storage filesystem list) I’ve tried to unmount it (esxcli storage filesystem unmount, with label, path and UUID but the system does not unmount the volume so I’m stuck and can’t use this VM). Do you have, by any chance, a clue of what to do?

  13. Sabonkarani says

    Hi,
    Can you please tell me where do i find the latest ver. of ESXi, i run 5.5.0 #1 SMP Release build-1746018 Apr 15 2014 02:08:35 x86_64 GNU/Linux, i want to upgrade it and how do i proceed (any how to or instruction)..

    Thanx

  15. mb says

    I am a light user of VMware ESXI, and find that the free version provides all the functionality I require (mostly just for testing/dev usages). As such I am not permitted to download the …depot.zip files, but I noticed that the “patch” files to update 6.0 to 6.0u1 are about the size of a full installation, so I used the patch file (update-from-esxi6.0-6.0_update01.zip) in place of the depot.zip to perform an update from 5.1, and it appears to have worked just fine for me.

  16. John says

    According to VMware, The esxcli software vib update and esxcli software vib install commands are not supported for upgrade operations. so why are you using esxcli software vib update command to upgrade host from ESXi 5.x to 6?

  18. Deej says

    I have the same question as John. I used this method to upgrade my hosts from 5.5 to 6.0 because it was actually easier than using Update Manager, even though I administer a medium sized environment.

    After the upgrade (which was super smooth) I now show the following:

    ESX/ESXi Version: VMware ESXi, 6.0.0, 2494585
    Image Profile: (Updated) ESXi-5.5.0-1746018-Custom-Cisco-5.5.1.3

    Is this a problem (other than bugging me that they don’t match)? And is there any way to resolve this?

    Thanks for the article!

  19. Neeraj Shah says

    Hello, One user posted a similar comment. The below link which you replied to John, states that the “esxcli software vib update” and “esxcli software vib install” commands are not supported for UPGRADE operations. So why are you using esxcli software vib update command to upgrade host from ESXi 5.x to 6? What am i missing then ? Sorry but I am confused 🙂

    https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-60/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.upgrade.doc%2FGUID-22A4B153-CB21-47B4-974E-2E5BB8AC6874.html

    • Vladan SEGET says

      I guess the best way from now on is to use the:

      “esxcli software profile update”

      Things has changed at VMware. I’ll test and try to update the post…
      Thanks

  21. J. Daniel Medeiros says

    Thank you very much for sharing all this information. I am running 5.5.0 Build 1331820 and would like to upgrade to 6. I am running with the Realtek 816X nics.

    ~ # esxcli software vib list
    …
    net-r8168 8.013.00-3vmw.510.0.0.799733 VMware VMwareCertified 2013-11-08
    net-r8169 6.011.00-2vmw.510.0.0.799733 VMware VMwareCertified 2013-11-08
    …

    ~ # esxcli network nic list
    Name PCI Device Driver … Description
    —— ————- —— … ————————————-
    vmnic0 0000:003:00.0 r8168 … Realtek Realtek 8168 Gigabit Ethernet
    vmnic1 0000:006:00.0 r8168 … Realtek Realtek 8168 Gigabit Ethernet
    vmnic2 0000:005:01.0 r8169 … Realtek Realtek 8169 Gigabit Ethernet

    If I follow the steps outline above, or the video, am i not dead in the water? I think I would be considering VMware’s position went from dropping support in 5.5 to blacklisting in 6.

    Thank you!

  23. Dave says

    Thanks so much for your informative post!

    I have an ESXi 5.5.0 machine and want to add it to a new vSphere Essentials Kit license v 6.0.0U2. But it won’t let me because it is 5.5.0. When I choose the ‘-standard’ suffix as in the instructions above, will I be locking that host into a Standard license instead of Essentials?

    • Vladan SEGET says

      The “-standard” in the instructions above is related to standard image profile (nothing to do with licensing).

      Licensing is managed via vCenter server. First, you must install vCenter server 6.0 > create a Datacenter object > Add the 5.5 host there > upgrade the host to 6.0

      Done -:)

      • Dave says

        Actually, I am not able to add the 5.5 host (Which is currently the free license) to the v6 vCenter Datacenter due to a licensing error that I get:

        License not available to perform the operation. The VMware vSphere 5 Hypervisor license for Host esx1.balletbc.local does not include vCenter agent for VMware host. Upgrade the license.

        Nor can I apply the v6 license to the 5.5 ESXi. I get an error stating that the license is not valid for the version of the ESXi.

        But, if I understand you correctly, I can still proceed with the upgrade as outlined above and then apply the new license?

        • Vladan SEGET says

          In fact, you shall have a “vCenter license” for vcenter server asset. And on the other hand, you should have “esxi license” for host asset. Upgrade the host individually > apply the host license > add the host to vCenter.

  24. Eduard says

    Hello
    Your Documentation was very helpful for me…
    Last Wekend i’ve made some ESXi Hypervisor updates inclusive the “update-from-esxi6.0-6.0_update02” Update Release
    Also in a VMWare VSAN 6.x Infrastructure

    Do you have a newsletter ?

    Thanks
    Eduard
    Germany

  25. Robert Larson says

    This was very helpful. Just updated two 5.5 boxes remotely. I’d always done this using ILO or DRAC and virtually mounting the ISO. In this case I didn’t have a remote access method available and so I googled alternate methods and found this page. This is actually so much easier and quicker. The only other step I had to do was manually reconnect the hosts in vCenter, they didn’t come back after the host reboot. But I just right clicked the hosts in vCenter and clicked Connect and all was well. Thanks so much for publishing this.

  26. Victor B says

    Hey, great guide.

    What’s the difference between the two builds:
    ESXi-6.0.0-2016104001-standard
    ESXi-6.0.0-2016101001s-standard

    Does the ‘s’ build only include security updates?

  27. Eddy Chong says

    Hi,

    What is the difference between esxcli software vib update and esxcli software profile update?

    This is kinda confusing..

  30. Victor says

    Hi, I’m used to update remotely and succesfully done a couple of server but today I get this :

    # esxcli software sources profile list -d VMware-ESXi-6.0.0.update03-6921384-LNV-20180201.zip
    [MetadataDownloadError]
    Could not download from depot at zip:/var/log/vmware/VMware-ESXi-6.0.0.update03-6921384-LNV-20180201.zip?index.xml, skipping ((‘zip:/var/log/vmware/VMware-ESXi-6.0.0.update03-6921384-LNV-20180201.zip?index.xml’, ”, “Error extracting index.xml from /var/log/vmware/VMware-ESXi-6.0.0.update03-6921384-LNV-20180201.zip: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: ‘/var/log/vmware/VMware-ESXi-6.0.0.update03-6921384-LNV-20180201.zip'”))
    url = zip:/var/log/vmware/VMware-ESXi-6.0.0.update03-6921384-LNV-20180201.zip?index.xml
    Please refer to the log file for more details.

    • Abel RV says

      That is related to the name of the file. I had the same issue because i changed the name form ESXi600-201706001.zip to ESXi600-201706001-Offline-Bundle.zip. When i changeit back to the original, it worked like a charm. I hope this helps!!

  31. Victor says

    Sorry to leave another comment I don’t know how to edit the last one. It appear it work well if I dump the image in a datastore but I were at some point able to update while uploading the image to the / of root where I do create a “tools” folder to put anything I.T. related.. so not critical to resolve my bug but if there is a way I would apreciate to at least understand

    • Keith says

      Greetings Victor: You need to provide the complete path for the zip file. Depending on your setup, it could be /vmfs/volumes/. It’s trying to look a a default area in the /var/log/vmware directory. Once you give it the correct path, you’ll have better results.

    • Vladan SEGET says

      Oh, that’s almost unsupported, that 5.5 version (September 19, 2018). Isn’t it? You can upgrade 5.5 to 6.0 or 6.5 only. No direct to 6.7. You can then go 6.0 (or 6.5) to 6.7

      • Wesley says

        Hello Vladan,
        What would be the best way to upgrade a cluster of 4 hosts running ESXi 5.5 to ESXi 6.5, with vCenter on Windows server?
        Greatly appreciate your input and any good steps.
        BTW I love your articles and posts , such great job !!
        Wesley

        • Vladan SEGET says

          Check HCL > vCenter upgrade > ESXi upgrade > VM tools upgrade. That only if all other external apps (backup/monitoring) is already supporting 6.5. (That’s a rough process only)

  33. Jared says

    You are right. I figured that out after doing some more reading on the subject. Unfortunately, I tried doing a 5.5 update to 6.5 via USB installer and it just plain didn’t work. The 6.5 installer showed that it recognized 5.5 on the boot volume, but it did a generic install instead of an upgrade. I have not been able to figure out why so far.