How to update ESXi 6 via command line

I use VMware vSphere Hypervisor 6 on my NUC. Time to time new updates are released. I use the community license so don’t have access to the management tools offered by VMware. This method would be the easiest to patch the server with the latest updates.

One way would be to download and make a USB stick out of the iso file provided and go through the update process on the console. This needs a physical access to the unit. It get’s tricky when the Hypervisor is on a headless server hidden somewhere not so easy to access.

Preparation

Shutdown all VMs and put the host in maintenance mode!

Update

connect to the host machine with Putty or similar ssh tool and run below commands.

[saeed@khorshid2:~] esxcli software sources profile list -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml | grep ESXi-6.5
ESXi-6.5.0-4564106-standard VMware, Inc. PartnerSupported
ESXi-6.5.0-20170304001-standard VMware, Inc. PartnerSupported
ESXi-6.5.0-20170301001s-no-tools VMware, Inc. PartnerSupported
ESXi-6.5.0-20170304001-no-tools VMware, Inc. PartnerSupported
ESXi-6.5.0-20170701001s-standard VMware, Inc. PartnerSupported
ESXi-6.5.0-20170404001-no-tools VMware, Inc. PartnerSupported
ESXi-6.5.0-20170702001-standard VMware, Inc. PartnerSupported
ESXi-6.5.0-20170104001-standard VMware, Inc. PartnerSupported
ESXi-6.5.0-20170702001-no-tools VMware, Inc. PartnerSupported
ESXi-6.5.0-20170304101-no-tools VMware, Inc. PartnerSupported
ESXi-6.5.0-20170701001s-no-tools VMware, Inc. PartnerSupported
ESXi-6.5.0-20170301001s-standard VMware, Inc. PartnerSupported
ESXi-6.5.0-20170404001-standard VMware, Inc. PartnerSupported
ESXi-6.5.0-20170104001-no-tools VMware, Inc. PartnerSupported
ESXi-6.5.0-4564106-no-tools VMware, Inc. PartnerSupported
ESXi-6.5.0-20170304101-standard VMware, Inc. PartnerSupported
[saeed@khorshid2:~]
[saeed@khorshid2:~] esxcli software profile update -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml -p ESXi-6.5.0-20170702001-standa
rd

That’s it!!