Installation guide

Upgrading to ESX 4.1 or ESXi 4.1 9
There a several tools available for upgrading hosts. You can use different upgrade tools based depending on
the type of host you are upgrading (ESX or ESXi) and whether the hosts are managed by vCenter Server.
In-place upgrades of hosts from ESXi 4.0 to ESXi 4.1 are supported using the vihostupdate command-line
utility. vihostupdate requires the vSphere Command-Line Interface (vSphere CLI).
In-place upgrades of ESX 4.0 to ESX 4.1 are supported using the vihostupdate command-line utility and the
esxupdate command-line utility.
Upgrades from ESX/ESXi 3.5 and ESX/ESXi 4.0 to ESX/ESXi 4.1 are also supported using vCenter Update
Manager. See the VMware vCenter Update Manager Installation and Adminstration Guide accessible on the VMware
vCenter Update Manager Documentation page: http://www.configuresoft.net/support/pubs/vum_pubs.html.
CAUTION
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If you are upgrading hosts managed by vCenter Server, you must upgrade to vCenter Server before you
upgrade ESX/ESXi. If you do not upgrade in the correct order, you can lose data and lose access to your
servers.
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When you upgrade a host from ESX 3.x to ESX 4.x, the customized partitions in 3.x are not replicated in
4.x.
This chapter includes the following topics:
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“About the vihostupdate Command-Line Utility,” on page 63
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“Upgrade an ESX Host with the vihostupdate Utility,” on page 64
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“Upgrade an ESXi Host with the vihostupdate Utility,” on page 65
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“Upgrade an ESX Host with the esxupdate Utility,” on page 65
About the vihostupdate Command-Line Utility
The vihostupdate command upgrades ESX/ESXi hosts and installs and updates ESX/ESXi extensions such as
VMkernel modules, drivers, and CIM providers.
You must have the vSphere CLI installed to use the vihostupdate command.
NOTE The esxupdate utility is also supported for upgrades to ESX 4.1. It is for ESX only.
The vihostupdate command works with bulletins. Each bulletin consists of one or more vSphere bundles and
addresses one or more issues.
Towards the end of a release, bulletins might include a large number of other bulletins. Bulletins are available
in offline bundles in which all patches and corresponding metadata are available as two ZIP files.
VMware, Inc.
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