Howto Install VIB Patches on ESXi Hosts Without Update Manager

So you find yourself in a position where you need to update one (or more) of your hosts but don’t have vCenter Update Manager around to assist.  In my case trying to get Windows Server 8 CP working….It’s not terribly difficult, you simply:

  1. Download the patch – you can download patches direct from VMware @ the Patch Portal
  2. Open a datastore with enough freespace to store the patch via your vSphere Client (Right-Click->Browse on a datastore)
  3. Upload the patch you downloaded (should be a .zip file)
  4. SSH into the host
  5. Execute the command “esxcli software vib install /vmfs/volumes/<DATASTORE-NAME>/<PATCH-NAME>.zip”  – replacing the <DATASTORE-NAME> and <PATCH-NAME> appropriately.

This command can take some time to execute for large patches.

When it’s done you should get some text like below, remember to pay attention to this text so you know if you need to reboot your host or not.

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