How to Upgrade from VMware vSphere ESXi 6.vii to 7.0

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VMware vSphere 7, the latest release of VMware's virtualization platform, introduces a number of new useful features and many companies are looking frontward to upgrading from vSphere half dozen.7 to 7.0. The ESXi hypervisor is 1 of the main vSphere components, and for a vSphere upgrade, you should perform a VMware vCenter upgrade and a VMware ESXi upgrade. You won't have to perform a clean installation of ESXi 7.0 on servers running ESXi half-dozen.v or ESXi 6.seven as you can directly upgrade to v7 from these 2 versions. If yous're using ESXi 6.0 or earlier in your vSphere environment, you can upgrade in several steps. For example, upgrade showtime to version 6.5 and and then to version 7.0. Otherwise, do a make clean installation of ESXi 7.0. This blog post explains how to upgrade from ESXi half dozen.7 to ESXi seven.0 in your vSphere environment.

ESXi Upgrade Requirements

The hardware of a server running ESXi 6.vii must be compatible with ESXi 7.0, that is, it must meet the hardware requirements for ESXi 7.0. If an unsupported device is present (for example, an old unsupported CPU or deejay controller), the ESXi upgrade will not be applied to the server. Run into VMware Hardware Compatibility Guide.

At that place must be no running VMs on an ESXi host when you showtime the ESXi upgrade procedure. At that place must also be enough free storage infinite for the ESXi upgrade.

If an ESXi host is managed by vCenter Server, the vCenter version must be the aforementioned or higher compared to the target version of ESXi afterward upgrade. VMware vCenter 7.0 can manage ESXi 7.0, ESXi 6.seven and ESXi vi.five, just vCenter six.vii cannot manage ESXi 7.0 hosts. Thus, yous have to upgrade vCenter beginning and so go to ESXi upgrade if you want to upgrade vSphere 6.seven to 7.0. Follow this vSphere upgrade order, otherwise you lot can lose the connection between an ESXi host and vCenter.

If there are any VMware add-ons or plugins installed, bank check their compatibility past using the VMware Compatibility Matrix.

ESXi Upgrade Methods

This weblog post covers two main methods for a VMware ESXi upgrade:

  1. Upgrade past using ESXCLI, the command line interface. This method can be used for VMware ESXi six.vii to 7.0 upgrade for standalone ESXi hosts and ESXi hosts managed past vCenter.
  2. Upgrade by using Lifecycle Manager. This method is applicative but for ESXi hosts managed by vCenter Server. VMware Lifecycle Manager for VMware vSphere 7.0 is a modified VMware Update Manager that was used in vSphere 6.7. This is the preferred method for upgrading ESXi hosts managed by vCenter and allows you to upgrade multiple ESXi hosts at once by using the same image.

How long does ESXi upgrade accept? An ESXi upgrade takes a few minutes if at that place are no compatibility issues or other problems.

ESXi Upgrade past Using ESXCLI

Although ESXi upgrade by using ESXCLI is not difficult, you should yet perform an ESXi backup before upgrading. This way, if anything goes wrong, you tin can roll dorsum to a backup version. Read also how to dorsum up ESXi configuration.

Enable ESXi Shell and SSH to access the command line interface on the ESXi host. You can practise this by using ane of two methods:

  1. In the ESXi directly console (DCUI), open Arrangement customization and in Troubleshooting options, hit Enable ESXi Shell and Enable SSH. This configuration enables SSH and ESXi Shell permanently until yous manually disable them.
  2. Enter the IP address of your ESXi host in a web browser. Log into the VMware Host Client by using your ESXi root credentials. In the web interface of the VMware Host Client go to Manage > Services.

Start the services:

  • TSM
  • TSM-SSH

These services will be enabled until ESXi reboot if you started the services in VMware Host Customer.

Enable-SSH-access-for-VMware-ESXi-upgrade-by-using-ESXCLI

Check the current version of ESXi in the ESXi Direct Console or ESXi Vanquish past using the vmware -v command or in VMware Host Client past going to Help > About.

Checking-the-current-ESXi-version-before-upgrade

Shut down all VMs running on the ESXi host.

ESXi upgrade past using ESXCLI is divided into 2 types:

  • The offline method – you have to download the offline bundle from the VMware website manually, upload the file to the ESXi datastore, and use this packet for the ESXi upgrade.
  • The online method – yous should use VMware online repositories to download and install new packages for an ESXi profile update.

The offline method for ESXi upgrade

Download the ESXi vii offline bundle from the VMware website. The zip archive of the offline bundle is available along with the ESXi ISO installation image. In our case the name of the downloaded VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) offline bundle file is:

VMware-ESXi-7.0.0-15843807-depot.nothing

Downloading-the-VMware-ESXi-7-offline-bundle-from-the-VMware-website

Upload the downloaded zip file to the ESXi datastore. You tin employ VMware Host Client or whatsoever SFTP customer (if yous desire to upload a file via SSH). Allow'southward apply VMware Host Client to upload the file.

Go to Storage > Datastores, select the datastore (datastore1 in our case), and click Datastore Browser.

Opening-the-datastore-browser-by-using-VMware-Host-Client

Select a directory to store bundle files or create a new directory in the datastore browser. Nosotros create the ESXi7-bundle directory to shop the VMware-ESXi-vii.0.0-15843807-depot.nix file. Click Upload to browse a nada parcel file and upload the file to the selected directory in the datastore.

The-ESXi-7-offline-installation-bundle-is-uploaded-to-the-ESXi-datastore-for-ESXi-upgrade

Make sure that there are non any VMs in the running state on this ESXi host earlier starting the ESXi upgrade process.

vmware -v is the control that allows you to check the electric current version of ESXi running on your server in the console.

Run the update control to upgrade ESXi 6.7 to 7.0:

esxcli software profile update -p ESXi-7.0.0-15843807-standard -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/ESXi7-bundle/VMware-ESXi-seven.0.0-15843807-depot.zippo

where ESXi-seven.0.0-15843807-standard is the ESXi profile name that contains the version and build number that is equal to the ESXi version and build number defined in the proper noun of the VMware-ESXi-7.0.0-15843807-depot.zilch file used for ESXi upgrade. A profile consists of VIBs and defines an ESXi image. A VIB is an ESXi software package.

Wait for a while until you run into the control output.

Running-the-command-to-upgrade-ESXi-6-7-to-7-by-using-the-offline-method

Later on successful execution of the control you can come across a list of updated packages (VIBs – VMware installation bundles) in the console output.

ESXi-packages-are-updated-and-server-reboot-is-required-to-complete-ESXi-upgrade

Reboot the ESXi host to end the ESXi upgrade:

reboot

Don't forget to assign a serial number for ESXi 7.0 because the series number for ESXi six.seven doesn't work for ESXi vii.0. Since the vSphere vi license is not valid, the upgraded ESXi 7.0 host starts to work in the total-featured evaluation way for a lx-day period. Thus, you have threescore days after upgrade to enter a vSphere 7 serial number otherwise the functionality of ESXi 7.0 will be limited.

The online method for ESXi upgrade

When using the online method, you should configure net access for the ESXi host that you want to upgrade and place the host in maintenance way manually.

List the current paradigm contour and contained packages:

esxcli software profile become

Viewing-the-current-ESXi-profile

Enter ESXi to the maintenance mode:

vim-cmd /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter

or

esxcli arrangement maintenanceMode prepare --enable truthful

Allow http traffic past editing settings in the built-in firewall on the ESXi host:

esxcli network firewall ruleset set -eastward true -r httpClient

Listing profiles provided by VMware for ESXi 7.0 in VMware repositories:

esxcli software sources contour listing -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/Product/main/vmw-depot-index.xml | grep ESXi-7.0.0

A software depot is a collection of VIBs and image profiles that has a hierarchy of files and directories that tin be accessed via HTTPS. Companies who have large VMware vSphere environments can create own depots and apply vSphere auto deploy to install updates on numerous ESXi hosts.

Let'southward utilize this contour:
ESXi-7.0.0-15843807-standard

You can cheque which packages will be installed before running the ESXi upgrade command:

esxcli software contour update -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml -p ESXi-7.0.0-15843807-standard --dry-run

Run the update process:

esxcli software profile update -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/Production/primary/vmw-depot-index.xml -p ESXi-seven.0.0-15843807-standard

Configuring-the-firewall-selecting-the-profile-and-starting-the-ESXi-upgrade-process

Wait for a few minutes until the upgrade procedure is finished.

Prefer using esxcli software profile update rather than esxcli software profile install to prevent overwriting existing packages, drivers, and configuration.

If you see the fault message

Got no data from procedure: LANG=en_US.UTF-8 /usr/lib/vmware/esxcli-software profile.update  -d "https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/primary/vmw-depot-index.xml" -p "ESXi-seven.0.0-15843807-standard",

check whether in that location is a persistent scratch partitioning. A persistent scratch partition may be absent if you run ESXi from a USB flash drive. Read the blog postal service near running ESXi from the USB flash drive to learn more than about ESXi partitions.

If everything is correct, reboot the ESXi host for the changes to take effect.

reboot

Go out the maintenance mode with the command:

vim-cmd /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter

or

esxcli organization maintenanceMode set --enable false

ESXi Host Upgrade in vCenter

Open up VMware vSphere Customer in your spider web browser to access vCenter.

There are 2 ESXi half-dozen.7 hosts in this example and these hosts are managed by vCenter. Close down virtual machines on ESXi hosts that must be upgraded or migrate those VMs to other ESXi hosts. You tin can exercise upgrading ESXi hosts in virtual environs by running ESXi hosts and vCenter as virtual machines.

Let's upgrade the ESXi host with IP address is 192.168.xi.27. Select the needed ESXi host and check the electric current hypervisor version. As you lot can come across on the screenshot below, the current version of our ESXi host before upgrade is half-dozen.seven.0 build 10302608. If yous want to upgrade multiple ESXi hosts, you can select a cluster or a datacenter.

Checking-the-current-ESXi-version-in-VMware-vSphere-Client-before-starting-ESXi-upgrade

Open Lifecycle Managing director. You can exercise it by using multiple methods.

  1. Click Home and in the left pane (navigation pane) click Lifecycle Managing director.
  2. Click Menu in the top of the vSphere Client window, and hitting Lifecycle Manager.

Once you have opened VMware Lifecycle Manager in vSphere Client, select the Imported ISOs tab and click Import ISO.

Importing-the-ESXi-7-installation-ISO-image-for-performing-VMware-ESXi-upgrade

Hitting Browse and select the ESXi 7 installation ISO image file. You can download the ESXi installation image from the VMware website after registration (a VMware account is required).

Browsing-the-installation-ISO-image-for-ESXi-6-7-to-7-upgrade

One time you accept selected the ISO file, the importing process starts. In this example, we use the VMware-VMvisor-Installer-7.0.0-15843807.x86_64.iso file.

The-ESXi-7-installation-ISO-image-is-uploading-to-the-repository-of-Lifecycle-Manager

After importing the ISO file, you can see that the ESXi 7.0 installation image in the Imported ISOs tab.

Click New baseline to create a new baseline.

Creating-a-new-baseline-after-importing-the-ISO-image

Name and Description. Enter the baseline name and clarification, for example, ESXi7-0 and ESXi 7.0 baseline.

Entering-a-name-and-description-for-a-new-baseline

Select ISO. Select the ESXi 7 ISO image you take uploaded earlier (VMware-VMvisor-Installer-7.0.0-15843807.x86_64.iso).

Selecting-the-ESXi-7-installation-ISO-image-for-a-new-baseline

Summary. Review your selections before finishing creating a baseline.

Checking-the-summary-for-a-new-baseline-creation

A baseline is now created.

Go dorsum to the Hosts and clusters screen, select the ESXi host that must be updated (192.168.11.27 in our case), and in the top right corner of the interface click the Updates tab.

Selecting-the-Updates-tab-after-selecting-the-ESXi-host-that-must-be-upgraded

When a baseline is created, y'all accept to attach that baseline to ESXi hosts y'all desire to update. Every bit you lot recall, we are going to update a single ESXi host in this walkthrough.

Hit Baselines, scroll down and find the Fastened Baselines section, and so click Attach and in the menu that opens, click Attach Baseline or Baseline Group.

Attaching-a-baseline-or-baseline-group-to-the-selected-ESXi-host-for-configuring-VMware-ESXi-upgrade

Select the ESXi7-0 baseline you have created before and click Adhere. If there are whatsoever other baselines attached, remove those baselines by selecting them and clicking Disassemble.

VMware-upgrade_selecting-the-baseline-to-attach

Now you have to check compliance. This step is needed to bank check whether the ESXi host has already the update installed. If you see the non-compliant status, information technology means that the update is not installed on your ESXi host. Click Cheque Compliance.

Checking-compliance-before-performing-ESXi-upgrade

As you lot can see on the next screenshot, the ESXi status later on checking is non-compliant and information technology means that you can install the needed update and upgrade ESXi 6.vii to ESXi 7.0.

The-non-compliant-status-notifies-you-that-updates-have-not-been-installed-on-an-ESXi-host-yet

Pre-check remediation checks for any compliance problems that may occur after installing updates and the ESXi upgrade.

Running-pre-check-remediation-to-check-for-any-compliance-issues-that-may-occur-after-VMware-ESXi-upgrade

As y'all can see on the screenshot below, there are no issues after running remediation pre-check. Hit Washed and go to upgrade the ESXi host.

VMware-upgrade_no-issues-found-after-remediation-pre-check

In the Fastened Baselines section select your ESXi7-0 baseline created before and click Remediate to start the ESXi 6.7 to 7.0 upgrade procedure.

Clicking-Remediate-to-start-the-upgrade-process-of-ESXi-6-7-ESXi-7

A pop-up screen appears. Read the Finish User License Agreement (EULA) and select the I take the terms and license agreement checkbox. Hit OK to go on.

The-end-user-license-agreement-must-be-accepted-to-perform-upgrade-to-ESXi-7

Make sure that your ESXi host is selected and hitting Remediate to upgrade ESXi 6.7 to 7.0. Don't forget that virtual machines must exist powered off or migrated from the ESXi host that is being upgraded.

Remediating-the-selected-ESXi-6-7-host-for-upgrade-to-the-version-7

Y'all can run across the ESXi upgrade progress in the Recent task toolbar that can exist expanded in the bottom of the VMware vSphere Client interface. The ESXi host is automatically entered into the maintenance style to install the upgrade.

The-ESXi-host-is-entered-the-maintenance-mode-and-the-upgrade-process-is-started

When the ESXi upgrade procedure is finished, the maintenance mode is turned off for the host and the upgraded ESXi host is set up to piece of work. You can select the ESXi host in the Hosts and Clusters view and check the version afterwards ESXi upgrade. As you lot tin come across on the screenshot beneath, the version of ESXi is now ESXi 7.0.0, 15843807.

The-ESXi-host-has-been-upgraded-to-the-version-7-successfully

If you meet that a license is expired after an ESXi 6.7 to 7.0 upgrade on the upgraded host, yous should apply a vSphere 7.0 license.

If you need to upgrade an ESXi host on which a vCenter VM (virtual appliance) is running you can use one of the approaches:

  • Migrate a vCenter VM to another ESXi host and upgrade the source ESXi host.
  • Close down a vCenter VM and other VMs running on the ESXi host and upgrade ESXi by using ESXCLI every bit explained in the first office of this blog post. Observe, that SSH access must be enabled and the lockdown fashion must be disabled (you must be able to manage an ESXi host directly without vCenter).

Note: If whatever of explained ESXi upgrade methods are not suitable for you lot, y'all can write the ESXi ISO installation prototype to a DVD deejay or USB flash drive, kicking from that medium, run the ESXi seven.0 installer, and select the disk where ESXi six.7 is installed equally the destination disk. The upgrade is performed in the interactive fashion in this example. Another more complex ESXi upgrade method is a scripted upgrade by using a traditional boot medium similar DVD and flash drive or the preboot execution environment (PXE) to run the installer. The scripted method allows you to utilise predefined settings for upgrading multiple ESXi hosts.

What is VM compatibility upgrade? VM compatibility upgrade is the upgrade of VM hardware version. A VM hardware version defines which emulated devices (virtual hardware) are used past a virtual machine running on a VMware hypervisor.

Should yous upgrade VMware hardware version? It is recommended to upgrade the hardware version of virtual machines later on an ESXi upgrade and to update VMware Tools.

Determination

After the release of vSphere 7, many VMware customers desire to upgrade from vSphere 6.7 to 7.0. VMware ESXi upgrade is a role of VMware vSphere upgrade. This blog post has covered ESXi vi.vii to 7.0 upgrade by using multiple methods. VMware ESXi upgrade in ESXCLI, which is a command line interface, is the universal method that can be used to upgrade standalone ESXi hosts and ESXi hosts managed by vCenter if it is not restricted by vCenter configuration. If you lot apply vCenter to manage a high number of ESXi hosts, consider ESXi upgrade by using VMware Lifecycle Manager that is component of vCenter 7.0 and is a successor of VMware Update Managing director. It is recommended to perform ESXi fill-in before going to VMware ESXi upgrade. Don't forget to support your VMware VMs on a regular ground to protect your data. NAKIVO Backup & Replication tin perform VMware backup, including for vSphere 7, and provide comprehensive data protection for your environment.

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