Guidelines for async application of ESXI hot patch on top of latest VCF supported ESXi build

Products

• VMware Cloud Foundation

Issue/Introduction

This document is created to provide steps to consume ESXi hot patch asynchronously on top of latest VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) supported ESXi build.

Note:

1. This document is applicable for VSAN Ready Nodes only and should not be applied on VCF on VxRail.
2. This document is for the application of  ESXi 6.7 EP 18 hot patch, all examples given below explains the steps for EP 18 ( 6.7.0-17499825) consumption on top of ESXi 6.7.0-17167734 (released with VCF 3.10.1.2) and should not be used to apply any other patch.

Environment

VMware Cloud Foundation 3.10.x

Resolution

Steps to apply ESXi hot patch
The hot patch can be applied on ESXi hosts using VMware Update Manager (VUM) from vCenter.

The following documentation provides guidelines for updating ESXi hosts using VMware Update Manager: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.7/com.vmware.vsphere.update_manager.doc/GUID-9E9D146E-40BB-4BB5-8FC6-C9CD735C0F11.html .

Proceed to the next section only after all hosts required to be patched are updated.

Steps to update VCF inventory
The VCF inventory has to be updated for every host on which the hot patch is applied via VUM as an asynchronous update of ESXi host will not update the host version in VCF inventory.

1. To update inventory, first capture the host id of each host on which patch was applied and version of ESXi patch used for update. To get host details from VCF inventory, login to SDDC Manager via SSH and run following command.

curl localhost/inventory/hosts | json_pp
 

Note: This returns list of all hosts. The field "id" in each host entry, corresponds to host id.

2. From the output, ensure to also note the version for each of the hosts.
3. Update the VCF inventory for each host on which patch was applied using following command

curl -X PATCH 'localhost/inventory/entities/<HOST_ID> -d '{"version":"<ESXI_PATCH_VERSION>", "type":"ESXI"}' -H 'Content-Type:application/json'

<HOST_ID>  Id of host for which version is to be updated in VCF inventory
<ESXI_PATCH_VERSION>  Version of ESXi patch that was applied on hosts

 

Example:
<HOST_ID> - 65f5f921-768b-4043-8d4e-31b654c7fde4
<ESXI_PATCH_VERSION> - 6.7.0-17499825

curl -X PATCH 'localhost/inventory/entities/65f5f921-768b-4043-8d4e-31b654c7fde4' -d '{"version":"6.7.0-17499825", "type":"ESXI"}' -H 'Content-Type:application/json'

 

Update Version Alias configuration

4. To update the version aliases execute the below command.

curl -k 'localhost/v1/system/settings/version-aliases/ESX_HOST/<Base version of ESXI host>' -X PUT -H
'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'Accept: application/json' -d
'{"aliases" : [ "<Applied ESXI hot patch version>" ], "forceUpdate" : true}
 
<Base version of ESXI host> ESXI host version of latest release on which hot patch was installed.
<Applied ESXI hot patch version> The ESXI host version after successfully applying the hot patch.

Example:
<Base version of ESXI host> - 6.7.0-17167734
<Applied ESXI hot patch version> - 6.7.0-17499825

curl -k 'http://localhost/v1/system/settings/version-aliases/ESX_HOST/6.7.0-17167734' -X
PUT -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'Accept: application/json' -d '{"aliases" : ["6.7.0-17499825" ], "forceUpdate" : true }'