6.0.2

host upgrade, see “Using vSphere Update Manager to Perform Orchestrated
Host Upgrades,” on page 155. For instructions about performing an
orchestrated virtual machine upgrade, see the Installing and Administering
VMware vSphere Update Manager documentation.
Upgrade interactively by
using an ESXi installer
ISO image on CD/DVD
or USB flash drive
You can run the ESXi 6.0 installer from a CD/DVD or USB ash drive to do
an interactive upgrade. This method is appropriate for deployments with a
small number of hosts. The installer works the same as for a fresh
installation, but if you select a target disk that already contains an ESXi
5.0.x,ESXi 5.1.x, or ESXi 5.5.x installation, the installer upgrades the host to
6.0. The installer also gives you the option to migrate some existing host
seings and conguration les and to preserve the existing VMFS datastore.
See “Upgrade Hosts Interactively,” on page 200.
Perform a scripted
upgrade
You can upgrade hosts from ESXi 5.0.x, ESXi 5.1.x, and ESXi 5.5.x to ESXi 6.0
by running an update script for an ecient, unaended upgrade. Scripted
upgrades provide an ecient way to deploy multiple hosts. You can use a
script to upgrade ESXi from a CD, DVD, or USB ash drive, or by specifying
a preboot execution environment (PXE) for the installer. You can also call a
script from an interactive installation. See “Installing or Upgrading Hosts by
Using a Script,” on page 171.
vSphere Auto Deploy
After an ESXi 5.x host is deployed with vSphere Auto Deploy, you can use
vSphere Auto Deploy to reprovision the host and reboot it with a new image
prole. This prole contains an ESXi upgrade or patch, a host conguration
prole, and optionally, third-party drivers or management agents that are
provided by VMware partners. You can build custom images by using
vSphere ESXi Image Builder CLI. See “Using vSphere Auto Deploy to
Reprovision Hosts,” on page 184.
esxcli
You can use the esxcli command-line utility for ESXi to upgrade ESXi 5.0.x
hosts, ESXi 5.1.x hosts, or ESXi 5.5.x hosts to ESXi 6.0 hosts.
The esxupdate and vihostupdate utilities are not supported for ESXi 6.0 upgrades. See “Upgrading Hosts by
Using esxcli Commands,” on page 188.
Upgrading Hosts That Have Third-Party Custom VIBs
A host can have custom vSphere installation bundles (VIBs) installed, for example, for third-party drivers or
management agents. When you upgrade an ESXi 5.x host to ESXi 6.0, all supported custom VIBs are
migrated, regardless of whether the VIBs are included in the installer ISO.
If the host or the installer ISO image contains a VIB that creates a conict and prevents the upgrade, an error
message identies the VIB that created the conict. To upgrade the host, take one of the following actions:
n
Remove the VIB that created the conict from the host and retry the upgrade. If you are using
vSphere Update Manager, select the option to remove third-party software modules during the
remediation process. For more information, see the Installing and Administering VMware vSphere Update
Manager documentation. You can also remove the VIB that created the conict from the host by using
esxcli commands. For more information, see “Remove VIBs from a Host,” on page 197.
n
Use the vSphere ESXi Image Builder CLI to create a custom installer ISO image that resolves the
conict. For more information about vSphere ESXi Image Builder CLI installation and usage, see the
vSphere Installation and Setup documentation.
Chapter 8 Before Upgrading Hosts
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