Great Balls of Frustration… could the documentation be anymore confusing and convoluted regarding the process of patching an ESX server via the Linux remote cli.

No, I am not running windows, and no I am not on the local ESX console, and no I am not running the Vmware Management Appliance, and most of all, no I do not want outdated instructions from 2008. I just want to download some patches to my local linux destop and patch my ESX servers. Specifically I want to install the latest and greatest Qlogic drivers to troubleshoot a SAN connectivity issue that I will probably blog about at a later date.

Anyway here is how I did what I needed to do without resorting to using a windows box.

First download the driver isos to your local Linux desktop and mount the isos up locally,

mount -o loop vmware-esx-drivers-scsi-fnic_400.1.4.0.201-1vmw.2.17.00000.491446.iso /mnt

Second locate the offline-bundle directory. I moved mine off to another directory that I created specifically for the Qlogic Driver. This way I dont have to unmount and remount the iso when i patch my other boxes.

Next put the host in maint mode.

vicfg-hostops –username root –server esx04 -o enter

Then navigate to the offline_bundle directory and run the following command, replace the bundle name that I used with the bundle name in your directory

vihostupdate –server esx04 –install –bundle 841.k1.16.2-1vmw-offline_bundle-340223.zip

Wait for the following message

Please wait patch installation is in progress …
The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective.

Then reboot

vicfg-hostops –username root –server esx04 -o reboot