Unable to Import ESXi 7.0 ISO Images in vSphere 8.0 Lifecycle Manager
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Article ID: 381612
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Updated On:
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):
Download the appropriate ESXi 7.0 offline bundle (ZIP file) from the Customer Connect portal
Prepare the host:
Put the host in maintenance mode
Back up the host configuration:
vim-cmd hostsvc/firmware/sync_config
vim-cmd hostsvc/firmware/backup_config
Upload the offline bundle to a datastore accessible by the host
Connect to the host via SSH and navigate to the datastore location:
cd /vmfs/volumes/datastore_name/folder_name/
List available software profiles:
esxcli software sources profile list -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore_name/folder_name/filename.zip