Upgrade ESXi 5.5 to 6.5 using HP custom image

Today I had a interesting case with upgrade ESXi 5.5 to 6.5 using HP custom image.

 

Yes - 2021 - people still use ESXi 5.5

we confirmed that the hardware is compatible. 


 

ESXi 6.5. Patch 01

ESXi650-201703001

2017/03/09

5146846

5146843

Steps we followed

• esxcli software sources profile list -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/image.zip
• esxcli software profile update -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/ Imagename.zip -p <Profile-Name-from-previous-command> 
  
  

failed with the above dependencies and we used below to check for the dependencies


For storage drivers:

• esxcli storage core adapter list

For network drivers,

• esxcli network nic list
  
  

to see if the impacted drivers which are in use

• esxcli software vib list |grep driver_name
  
  

We can remove those or we can used below commands

• esxcli software profile install -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/ Imagename.zip -p <Profile-Name-from-previous-command> --ok-to-remove --dry-run
• esxcli software profile install -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/ Imagename.zip -p <Profile-Name-from-previous-command> --ok-to-remove
  
  

once host rebooted we were able to access the 6.5patch 1 installed host. 
 

to update 6.5u3 custom iso, download

• https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/downloads/details?downloadGroup=OEM-ESXI65U3-HPE&productId=614

and use the below command to patch the ESXi

• esxcli software vib update -d <path to ZIP archive>