Specifications

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If a host is a member of a Virtual SAN cluster, and any virtual machine on the host uses a VM storage
policy with a setting for "Number of failures to tolerate=0", the host might experience unusual delays
when entering maintenance mode. The delay occurs because Virtual SAN has to migrate the virtual
machine data from one disk to another in the Virtual SAN datastore cluster. Delays might take up to
hours. You can workaround this by setting the "Number of failures to tolerate=1" for the VM storage
policy, which results in creating two copies of the virtual machine files in the Virtual SAN datastore.
Perform an Orchestrated Upgrade of Hosts Using vSphere Update Manager
You can use Update Manager to perform orchestrated upgrades of the ESX/ESXi hosts in your vSphere
inventory by using a single upgrade baseline, or by using a baseline group.
This workflow describes the overall process to perform an orchestrated upgrade of the hosts in your
vSphere inventory. Update Manager 5.x supports host upgrades to ESXi 5.x for hosts that are running
ESX/ESXi 4.x.
You can perform orchestrated upgrades of hosts at the folder, cluster, or datacenter level.
NOTE The last two steps in this procedure are alternatives. Choose one or the other.
Prerequisites
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Make sure your system meets the requirements for vCenter Server 5.x, ESXi 5.x, and Update Manager
5.x. See “Update Manager Hardware Requirements,” on page 28
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Install or upgrade vCenter Server to version 5.x. See Chapter 4, “Upgrading vCenter Server,” on
page 61.
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Install or upgrade vSphere Update Manager to version 5.x. See Chapter 6, “Upgrading Update
Manager,” on page 139.
Procedure
1 Configure Host Maintenance Mode Settings on page 169
ESX/ESXi host updates might require that the host enters maintenance mode before they can be
applied. Update Manager puts the ESX/ESXi hosts in maintenance mode before applying these
updates. You can configure how Update Manager responds if the host fails to enter maintenance
mode.
2 Configure Cluster Settings on page 170
For ESX/ESXi hosts in a cluster, the remediation process can run either in a sequence or in parallel.
Certain features might cause remediation failure. If you have VMware DPM, HA admission control, or
Fault Tolerance enabled, you should temporarily disable these features to make sure that the
remediation is successful.
3 Enable Remediation of PXE Booted ESXi 5.x Hosts on page 171
You can configure Update Manager to let other software initiate remediation of PXE booted ESXi 5.x
hosts. The remediation installs patches and software modules on the hosts, but typically the host
updates are lost after a reboot.
4 Import Host Upgrade Images and Create Host Upgrade Baselines on page 172
You can create upgrade baselines for ESX/ESXi hosts with ESXi 5.5 images that you import to the
Update Manager repository.
5 Create a Host Baseline Group on page 173
You can combine one host upgrade baseline with multiple patch or extension baselines, or combine
multiple patch and extension baselines in a baseline group.
vSphere Upgrade
168 VMware, Inc.