Manual or Offline ESXi Upgrades using vSphere Lifecycle Manager

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides steps for manually patching or upgrading VMware ESXi hosts using vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM). This process is specifically for remote sites, dark sites, or air-gapped environments that do not have direct internet access to the Broadcom/VMware online depots.

Environment

VMware ESXi 7.x
VMware ESXi 8.x
VMware vCenter Server 7.x
VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Resolution

Follow these steps to manually import an image and patch hosts:

1. Obtain the Offline Bundle

1. From a machine with internet access, download the ESXi offline patch bundle (ZIP format) from the Broadcom Support Portal.
2. Securely transfer the downloaded ZIP file to a machine in the remote site that has network access to the vCenter Server.

2. Import Updates to the Image Depot

1. Log in to the vSphere Client.
2. Navigate to Lifecycle Manager (Menu > Lifecycle Manager).
3. Select the Actions menu and click Import Updates.
4. Browse to the offline bundle (ZIP) on the local machine and upload it to the depot.

3. Update the Cluster Image

1. Navigate to the target Cluster in the inventory.
2. Select the Updates tab and click Host > Image.
3. Click Edit in the image frame.
4. Select the uploaded Base ESXi Image from the dropdown menu.
5. Click Save to update the cluster's desired state.

4. Verify Compliance and Remediate

1. Click Run Pre-check under Image Compliance to ensure there are no blocking issues.
2. Once the hosts show as "Non-compliant," click Remediate All or select Modify for a specific host to apply the patches.

Additional Information

For further assistance, Contact Broadcom support.