Conditions for deploying and upgrading an ESXi host deployed using a custom image

Products

VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides the details and conditions when upgrading a VMware vSphere ESXi host that was deployed or installed using a custom installation image.

This article applies to ESXi hosts installed using an:

Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) image obtained from the vendor's website
Image obtained by from the Custom ISOs tab in the Download VMware vSphere section of Customer Connect
Image created using VMware vSphere ESXi Image Builder to include custom image profiles and VIB packages

For more information, see the Using vSphere ESXi Image Builder section in the vSphere Installation and Setup guide.

Symptoms:
After you upgrade a vSphere ESXi host to a later major version, you experience these symptoms:

The vSphere ESXi host was initially installed using a custom image
You are unable to connect to the host
You are unable to see some or all network adapters
You are unable to see some or all storage adapters or datastores

When you attempt to upgrade a vSphere ESXi host to a later major version, you experience these symptoms:

The VMware ESXi Installer displays the error:

<CONFLICTING_VIBS ERROR: Vibs on the host are conflicting with vibs in metadata, Remove the conflicting vibs or use Image Builder to create a custom ISO providing newer versions of the conflicting vibs.<br>['name_of_conflicting_vib'}>
VMware vSphere Update Manager displays the error:

The upgrade contains the following set of conflicting VIBs:
name_of_conflicting_vib1
name_of_conflicting_vib2
...

Remove the conflicting VIBs or use IMage Builder to create a custom Upgrade ISO image that contains the newer versions of the conflicting VIBs, and try the upgrade again.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1

Resolution

Upgrading an ESXi host that was installed with a custom image

The default VMware installation image includes a base set of device drivers, also known as inbox drivers. Some vendors may create a custom image for the installation of vSphere ESXi that includes additional device drivers and VIB packages specific to their hardware solutions. The addition of these drivers and VIB packages may not be included with the default VMware installation image for vSphere ESXi.

During an upgrading to a later major release of vSphere ESXi, these conditions must be met if the host was initially installed using a custom image of vSphere ESXi:

Third-party drivers and VIB packages bundled with the existing image must exist on the new image and be compatible with the new version of vSphere ESXi.
The firmware and BIOS versions of the host hardware must be compatible with the new version of vSphere ESXi and the corresponding third-party drivers and VIB packages.

For more information on device compatibility, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.

VMware recommends the use of custom images to upgrade to a later major release of vSphere ESXi that originate from the same source in which the initial installation image was obtained. If you are unable to locate a suitable image, use vSphere ESXi Image Builder to create a custom image that includes compatible versions of the third-party drivers and VIB packages that are currently installed.

For more information on using vSphere ESXi Image Builder, see the see Installing async drivers on VMware ESXi 5.x and ESXi 6.0.x (2005205) and the Using vSphere ESXi Image Builder section in the vSphere Installation and Setup guide.

To obtain a list of VIB packages installed on a host:

Log in to the host as root via an SSH or console session.
Type this command to list the VIBs that are currently installed:

esxcli software vib list

In some cases, hosts may contain third-party custom VIBs that cannot be upgraded. For more information, see the Upgrading Hosts That Have Third-Party Custom VIBs section in the vSphere Installation and Setup guide.

Note: This process may vary depending on the version of vSphere ESXi you are upgrading. For more information, see the Upgrading Hosts That Have Third-Party Custom VIBs section in the vSphere Installation and Setup guide that is for the version of vSphere ESXi that you are upgrading.

Updating an ESXi host that was installed with a custom image

When updating vSphere ESXi to a minor patch or version release, VMware recommends verifying the compatibility of device firmware, BIOS, third-party drivers and custom VIB packages with the new version of vSphere ESXi. If the third-party device driver, custom VIB package, BIOS or device firmware version are not compatible, upgrade the component to a compatible version. For more information on device compatibility, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.

For more information on upgrading third-party device drivers and VIB packages, see Installing async drivers on VMware ESXi 5.x and ESXi 6.0.x (2005205).

Additional Information

Major and minor version levels

vSphere ESXi consists of three version values in decimal notation. In most cases, the first two values indicate the major version and the final value indicates the minor version.

For example, VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0.0b is a part of the vSphere ESXi 6.0 release and 0b is the patch/update level. This information can be used to identify the patch and update level for each host when downloading and managing vSphere ESXi images.

Running this command as root via the console or SSH session on a host will display the running version of vSphere ESXi:

vmware -v

Using vSphere ESXi 6.0.0b as an example, you should see the output:

VMware ESXi 6.0.0 build-2809209

Notes:

To identify the friendly name of each build number, see Correlating VMware products build numbers to update levels (1014508).
The build number is also listed within the Direct Console User Interface of vSphere ESXi.

Correlating build numbers and versions of VMware products
How to download and install async drivers in ESXi 5.x/6.x
カスタムイメージを使用して展開した ESXi ホストの展開とアップグレードの条件
部署和升级使用自定义映像部署的 ESXi 主机的条件
Bedingungen für die Bereitstellung und das Upgrade eines mit einem benutzerdefinierten Image bereitgestellten ESXi-Hosts