Unable to Import ESXi 7.0 ISO Images in vSphere 8.0 Lifecycle Manager

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to import an ESXi 7.x ISO image into vSphere 8.x Lifecycle Manager using the Import ISO option, the operation fails with the error message: "The uploaded upgrade package cannot be used with VMware vSphere Lifecycle Manager."

Environment

- vCenter Server 8.0 or later
- Target ESXi hosts running versions 6.7.x or 7.0.x
- Attempting to upgrade hosts using vSphere Lifecycle Manager

Cause

vSphere Lifecycle Manager 8.0 has specific version compatibility restrictions:

• It can only use ESXi 8.0 ISO images for host upgrades
• It cannot perform ESXi upgrades to version 7.0 or 6.7

Resolution

Since vSphere Lifecycle Manager cannot be used for this upgrade, perform the upgrade using the ESXi command-line interface (CLI):

1. Download the appropriate ESXi 7.0 offline bundle (ZIP file) from the Customer Connect portal
   
   
2. Prepare the host:
   1. Put the host in maintenance mode
   2. Back up the host configuration:
      • vim-cmd hostsvc/firmware/sync_config
      • vim-cmd hostsvc/firmware/backup_config
        
        
3. Upload the offline bundle to a datastore accessible by the host
   
   
4. Connect to the host via SSH and navigate to the datastore location:
   • cd /vmfs/volumes/datastore_name/folder_name/
     
     
5. List available software profiles:
   • esxcli software sources profile list -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore_name/folder_name/filename.zip
     
     
6. Perform the upgrade using the standard profile:
   • esxcli software profile update -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore_name/folder_name/filename.zip -p profile-name-standard
     
     Note: Add --dry-run to test the upgrade without applying changes
     
     
7. Reboot the host:
   • reboot
     
     
8. Verify the upgrade:
   • vmware -vl

Additional Information

1.  

• Before proceeding with the upgrade, ensure all virtual machines are powered off or migrated
  
  
• The backup file will be located in
  /scratch/downloads as configBundle-HostFQDN.tgz
  
  
• If you encounter VIB-related errors, you can:
  • check storage-related VIBs using:
    • esxcfg-scsidevs -a
      
      
  • And network-related VIBs using:
    • esxcli network nic list
      
      
• If upgrading all ESXi hosts using a particular license, the license key may need to be upgraded.
  See Upgrade and Downgrade VMware License Keys