Managing ESXi host lifecycle operations with vSphere Lifecycle Manager Images (vLCM)

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

VMware introduced vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) in vSphere 7.0 as a replacement for the legacy vSphere Update Manager (VUM). vLCM uses an image-based, declarative model to define and enforce the desired state of ESXi hosts, including version, firmware, and drivers, ensuring consistency across clusters.

With vSphere 8.0, VMware deprecated baseline-based patching, which will be fully removed in the next major release. Customers are encouraged to transition to vLCM Images for host lifecycle management. However, VCF users should wait, as future VCF updates will provide guidance on migrating VUM clusters to vLCM.

With the launch of vSphere 8.0, we are announcing the deprecation of vSphere Lifecycle Manager Baselines (previously known as vSphere Update Manager VUM). The capability will continue to be supported, and will remain in the product, and is available for use in vSphere 8, until its removal in the next Major release of vSphere.  

Customers should transition from using vSphere Lifecycle Manager Baselines (VUM), to instead using vSphere Lifecycle Manager Images (vLCM) for managing the lifecycle of ESXi hosts.  

Note: VCF customers should NOT transition their existing VUM clusters to vLCM yet. A future VCF release will announce the support of such a transition

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.0.x

Resolution

vLCM enables declarative, image-based host management, allowing admins to define a desired ESXi version, firmware, and drivers, and enforce consistency across clusters or standalone hosts.

Key benefits:

• Centralized lifecycle control.
• Vendor add-on support.
• Compliance checks with automatic remediation.

Requirements:

• vSphere Lifecycle Manager Images (vLCM) requires that both vCenter and ESXi are in vSphere 7.x or higher versions.

vLCM is now the standard approach for managing ESXi lifecycle operations and is critical for staying current with VMware's supported infrastructure.

For full technical details and supported workflows, refer to:

• For an overview of vLCM, see the blog - Introducing vSphere Lifecycle Management (vLCM)
• For details on how to transition existing clusters to vLCM, see the user guide -  Convert a Cluster That Uses Baselines Into a Cluster That Uses vSphere Lifecycle Manager Images