Patching and Updating your VMware Cloud using Update Manager

Update Manager is a service built-in to your Vmware Cloud vCenter. It allows you to automate patching your ESXi hosts and even the VMTools on your VMs. MacStadium will provide baselines for updates for major version changes, however you can also use this to apply minor patches to your hosts as well. To do so, follow this guide for creating a baseline. If you are following the upgrade guide for vSphere 7.0, you can skip to the Remediation step and look for the “ESX 7.0 Upgrade” baseline.

Creating Baselines

Login to your VMware Cloud environment and go to the Update Manager section (if you are running vSphere 7.0, it is now called Lifecycle Manager).
Select the Baseline tab and then select New and New Baseline.
Give your baseline a name and select Patch from the radio button selection.
You can either use dynamic baselines which will create a patch list based on criteria like date or category, or you can manually select the patches you want to apply.
Once you have selected your patches, finish the baseline.

Attaching Baselines

Now that you've created a baseline, you need to attach the baseline to the appropriate hosts and/or clusters to apply the patch.

Go to your Hosts and Clusters view and select a cluster.
Go to the Updates tab and select Attach and Attach baseline.
Find the baseline you created and attach it.

Remediation

Now you should be able to remediate your hosts with the baseline you created.

Select your Cluster from the Hosts and Cluster view and go to the Updates tab.
Select the baseline that is attached and select Remediate.
If prompted, accept the EULA.
Ensure the appropriate hosts are selected and then select Remediate.

NOTE: The default settings for upgrading a cluster will attempt to live vMotion any running VMs on a host to another available host prior to performing the upgrade. If you only have a single host in the cluster, you will need to power down your VMs to perform the upgrade. If your host does not enter maintenance mode after 10 minutes, you may have configuration settings that prevent the VMs from migrating correctly. In this case, open a MacStadium Support ticket and we will help troubleshoot the issue with you.

Hosts will generally be rebooted after applying a patch. You can check the build version after it has been rebooted to verify it has been upgraded.

You can do this for most small patches and security fixes within your environment and can also do major Update releases with this as well. We have provided links to further details on this process below.