Updating ESXi with custom image with vSphere Lifecycle Manager

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• This article introduce the procedure to update ESXi with custom ESXi image including 3rd-party device driver or vendor add-on. 
• When updating ESXi image, if the driver in ESXi image to update is missing or lower than current installed version, error message is reported during precheck stage like: 
  "Downgrades of Addon Components <Driver-01 name>(<Driver-01 version>), <Driver-02 name>(<Driver-02 version>)..etc... in the desired ESXi version are not supported."

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi

VMware vCenter Server

Resolution

Follow the procedure below to manually add driver or vendor add-on into current ESXi image to create custom image then update ESXi:

• Download driver or vendor add-on file including the driver according to error message. 
  Reference: Download and install async drivers in VMware ESXi
• Import the driver or vendor add-on into vSphere Lifecycle Manager following:
  Import Updates to the vSphere Lifecycle Manager Depot
• Create a custom image on vCenter Server following the document:
  Create an Image in Image Library Manually
• Assign the image to the cluster following:
  Assign an Image from Image Library to a Cluster or a Standalone Host
• Proceed to update ESXi with vSphere Lifecycle Manager:
  Upgrading ESXi hosts using Lifecycle Manager