Patching vCenter Server Appliance via CLI

Before you start:

• Suppress Alert on vCenter Server

• Take Offline Snapshot and Make sure VCSA backup is successful

Note: vCenter Server First, Then ESXi Always update vCenter Server before ESXi to ensure compatibility and system stability. If only ESXi updates are available, proceed without waiting for a vCenter Server update.

Purpose: Patching vCenter server via command line interface

Steps:

• Place the vCenter into Maintenance mode. In Any alerting tools.

• Download the full patch ISO(FP.ISO) from the Broadcom Support Portal.

• Upload the patch to an existing datastore and attach the iso to the vCenter Server VM.

• SSH to the vCenter Server using FQDN or I.P and login with root account credentials

• Access the Appliance shell and not Bash Shell to perform the patch

• Follow KB mentioned here to toggle between bash shell to appliance shell and vice-versa: Toggling the vCenter Server Appliance default shell 

• Stage the packages located in the .ISO file mounted to the vCenter Server VM using below command: software-packages stage --iso --acceptEulas

• After the staging completes, you can run the below command to either list or install the staged packages: software-packages list --staged <======== To verify the version of the mounted ISO

• software-packages install --staged <======== To Install the packages which were staged

• Once completed, it will give an output stating "Packages upgraded successfully, Reboot is required to complete the installation” or "Installation completed successfully” not required a reboot

• If the patch installation requires a reboot of the appliance, run the following command to reset the appliance.

     shutdown now -r "patch reboot"

Health Check:

Steps:

• Login to VAMI as a root

• Make sure Health Status All good and GREEN

• Version and Build Number should be reflected as the new patch release

• SSO Status should be in “running” state

• Make sure all Automatic Services in a started state and healthy. same as example below

• Make sure ESXi cluster is in healthy state

• Exit the vcenter into Maintenance mode. In SCOM, go to Monitoring, Veeam for VMWare, _vCenter Alerts and select the vcenter in question and release it into MM.

• Delete the appliance snapshot after 24hrs if no issue occurred

KB Reference: Patching vCenter Server Appliance via CLI  

KB Reference for ELM: VMware vCenter in Enhanced Linked Mode pre-changes snapshot (online or offline) best practice  and https://www.vmware.com/docs/best-practices-for-patching-vmware-vsphere