Prior to the upgrade, a backup of the ESXi configuration is recommended. This backup can be done using the vicfg-cfgbackup command that is part of the ESXi CLI. The CLI can be installed in Windows or Linux.
- Download the installer from the Drivers and Tools tab of the ESXi download page.
- Install the exe using default options.
- Open a command prompt in Windows and navigate to the installation directory
- cd C:cd “C:Program FilesVMwareVMware vSphere CLIbin”
- Run the command to back up the configuration
vicfg-cfgbackup.pl --server 192.168.1.20 -s C:esxi_backup.txt- If authentication is not specified in the command, it will be requested and the password will not be echoed to the terminal
- Note: this command actually saved the file in this location despite the path I specified: C:UsersryanAppDataLocalVirtualStore
Once the backup has been taken, it’s time to do the upgrade.
- Download the following upgrade ZIP bundle from the VMware Web site to a location that is accessible to the vSphere CLI machine.
upgrade-from-ESXi4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.build#-release.zip- The upgrade ZIP bundle contains and esxupdate bulletin and an upgrade bulletin.
- Power off any virtual machines that are running on the host and place the host into maintenance mode.
- Install the esxupdate bulletin by running the following command on the vSphere CLI machine.
vihostupdate --server 192.168.1.20 -i -b c:tempupgrade-from-ESXi4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.260247-release.zip -B ESXi410-GA-esxupdate- Install the upgrade bulletin by running the following command on the vSphere CLI machine.
vihostupdate --server 192.168.1.20 -i -b c:tempupgrade-from-ESXi4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.260247-release.zip -B ESXi410-GA- Verify that the bulletins are installed on the ESXi host by running the following command.
vihostupdate.pl --server 192.168.1.20 --query- Reboot the host.
After the reboot, the first time connecting to the server with the vSphere Client, will result in a new version of vSphere being downloaded and installed. Just follow the prompts to get it upgraded.