6.0.2

You can use Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) to prevent virtual machine downtime during the
upgrade process.
Update Manager monitors hosts and virtual machines for compliance against your dened upgrade
baselines. Noncompliance appears in detailed reports and in the dashboard view. Update Manager supports
mass remediation.
The following vSphere components are upgraded by Update Manager.
n
ESXi kernel (vmkernel)
n
Virtual machine hardware
n
VMware Tools
n
Virtual appliances
For components that are not listed here, you can perform the upgrade by using another upgrade method, or,
for third-party components, by using the appropriate third-party tools.
The following topics describe how to use Update Manager to conduct an orchestrated upgrade of your ESXi
hosts.
n
“Conguring Host and Cluster Seings,” on page 156
n
“Perform an Orchestrated Upgrade of Hosts Using vSphere Update Manager,” on page 157
To use Update Manager to conduct an orchestrated upgrade of virtual machines on your hosts, see the
Installing and Administering VMware vSphere Update Manager documentation.
Configuring Host and Cluster Settings
When you update vSphere objects in a cluster with vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), vSphere
High Availability (HA), and vSphere Fault Tolerance (FT) enabled, you can temporarily disable vSphere
Distributed Power Management (DPM), HA admission control, and FT for the entire cluster. When the
update completes, Update Manager restores these features.
Updates might require the host to enter maintenance mode during remediation. Virtual machines cannot
run when a host is in maintenance mode. To ensure availability, vCenter Server can migrate virtual
machines to other ESXi hosts within a cluster before the host is put into maintenance mode. vCenter Server
migrates the virtual machines if the cluster is congured for vSphere vMotion, and if DRS is enabled.
If a host has no running virtual machines, DPM might put the host in standby mode and interrupt an
Update Manager operation. To make sure that scanning and staging complete successfully, Update Manager
disables DPM during these operations. To ensure successful remediation, have Update Manager disable
DPM and HA admission control before the remediation operation. After the operation completes,
Update Manager restores DPM and HA admission control. Update Manager disables HA admission control
before staging and remediation but not before scanning.
If DPM has already put hosts in standby mode, Update Manager powers on the hosts before scanning,
staging, and remediation. After the scanning, staging, or remediation is complete, Update Manager turns on
DPM and HA admission control and lets DPM put hosts into standby mode, if needed. Update Manager
does not remediate powered o hosts.
If hosts are put into standby mode and DPM is manually disabled for a reason, Update Manager does not
remediate or power on the hosts.
Within a cluster, temporarily disable HA admission control to allow vSphere vMotion to proceed. This
action prevents downtime of the machines on the hosts that you remediate. After the remediation of the
entire cluster, Update Manager restores HA admission control seings.
vSphere Upgrade
156 VMware, Inc.