new post: upgrading-standalone-vsphere-host-with-esxcli

content/posts/upgrading-standalone-vsphere-host-with-esxcli/index.md

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+---
+title: "Upgrading a Standalone vSphere Host With esxcli" # Title of the blog post.
+date: 2022-10-15T07:19:24-05:00 # Date of post creation.
+# lastmod: 2022-10-14T07:19:24-05:00 # Date when last modified
+description: "Using esxcli to upgrade a vSphere host from ESXi 7.x to 8.0." # Description used for search engine.
+featured: false # Sets if post is a featured post, making appear on the home page side bar.
+draft: false # Sets whether to render this page. Draft of true will not be rendered.
+toc: true # Controls if a table of contents should be generated for first-level links automatically.
+usePageBundles: true
+# menu: main
+featureImage: "esxi8.png" # Sets featured image on blog post.
+# featureImageAlt: 'Description of image' # Alternative text for featured image.
+# featureImageCap: 'This is the featured image.' # Caption (optional).
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+codeLineNumbers: false # Override global value for showing of line numbers within code block.
+series: Tips # Projects, Scripts, vRA8
+tags:
+  - vmware
+  - homelab
+  - vsphere
+comment: true # Disable comment if false.
+---
+You may have heard that there's a new vSphere release out in the wild - [vSphere 8, which just reached Initial Availability this week](https://advocacy.vmware.com/Article/Redirect/9cfbc1b1-207f-4885-a520-cc0bfafcd6c0?uc=197618&g=2d17264e-593a-492d-8d91-3a2155e835f1&f=3104867). Upgrading the vCenter in my single-host homelab is a very straightforward task, and using the included Lifecycle Manager would make quick work of patching a cluster of hosts... but things get a little trickier with a single host. I could write the installer ISO to a USB drive, boot the host off of that, and go through the install interactively, but what if physical access to the host is kind of inconvenient?
+
+The other option for upgrading a host is using the `esxcli` command to apply an update from an offline bundle. It's a pretty easy solution (and can even be done remotely, such as when connected to [my homelab](/vmware-home-lab-on-intel-nuc-9) via the [Tailscale node running on my Quartz64 ESXi-ARM host](/esxi-arm-on-quartz64/#installing-tailscale)) *but I always forget the commands.*
+
+So here's quick note on how I upgraded my lone ESXi to the new ESXi 8 IA release so that maybe I'll remember how to do it next time and won't have to go [Neeva](https://neeva.com/search?q=upgrade%20standalone%20host)'ing for the answer again.
+
+### 0: Download the offline bundle
+Downloading the Offline Bundle from [VMware Customer Connect](https://customerconnect.vmware.com/downloads/details?downloadGroup=ESXI800&productId=1345&rPId=95214) yields a file named `VMware-ESXi-8.0-20513097-depot.zip`.
+
+![Downloading the bundle](download_bundle.png)
+
+### 1: Transfer the bundle to the host
+I've found that the easiest way to do this it to copy it to a datastore which is accessible from the host.
+![Offline bundle stored on the local datastore](bundle_on_datastore.png)
+
+### 2. Power down VMs
+The host will need to be in maintenance mode in order to apply the upgrade, and since it's a standalone host it won't enter maintenance mode until all of its VMs have been stopped. This can be easily accomplished through the ESXi embedded host client. 
+
+### 3. Place host in maintenance mode
+I can do that by SSH'ing to the host and running:
+```shell
+esxcli system maintenanceMode set -e true
+```
+
+And can confirm that it happened with:
+```shell
+esxcli system maintenanceMode get
+Enabled
+```
+
+### 4. Identify the profile name
+Because this is an *upgrade* from one major release to another rather than a simple *update*, I need to know the name of the profile which will be applied. I can identify that with:
+```shell
+esxcli software sources profile list -d /vmfs/volumes/nuchost-local/_Patches/VMware-ESXi-8.0-20513097-depot.zip
+Name                          Vendor        Acceptance Level  Creation Time        Modification Time
+----------------------------  ------------  ----------------  -------------------  -----------------
+ESXi-8.0.0-20513097-standard  VMware, Inc.  PartnerSupported  2022-09-23T18:59:28  2022-09-23T18:59:28
+ESXi-8.0.0-20513097-no-tools  VMware, Inc.  PartnerSupported  2022-09-23T18:59:28  2022-09-23T18:59:28
+```
+{{% notice info "Absolute paths" %}}
+When using the `esxcli` command to install software/updates, it's important to use absolute paths rather than relative paths. Otherwise you'll get errors and wind up chasing your tail for a while.
+{{% /notice %}}
+
+In this case, I'll use the `ESXi-8.0.0-20513097-standard` profile.
+
+### 5. Install the upgrade
+Now for the moment of truth:
+```shell
+esxcli software profile update -d /vmfs/volumes/nuchost-local/_Patches/VMware-ESXi-8.0-2051309
+7-depot.zip -p ESXi-8.0.0-20513097-standard
+```
+
+When it finishes (successfully), it leaves a little message that the update won't be complete until the host is rebooted, so I'll go ahead and do that as well:
+```shell
+reboot
+```
+
+And then wait (oh-so-patiently) for the host to come back up.
+
+### 6. Resume normal operation
+Once the reboot is complete, log in to the host client to verify the upgrade was successful. You can then exit maintenance mode and start powering on the VMs again.
+
+The upgrade process took me about 20 minutes from start to finish, and now I'm ready to get on with exploring [what's new in vSphere 8](https://core.vmware.com/resource/whats-new-vsphere-8)!