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Installing Patches on ESX Server

Installing Distribution or Bundled Patches

To install a new build (ie 3.0.0 to 3.0.2) or installing bundled patches (ie 3.5.0 to 3.5.0u1) ssh into your ESX server with your local ESX server account.

ssh servername

One you are on the host change user to root

su -

Now change directory to the location the new distribution or bundled patches are are saved (in zip format is fine)

cd /tmp/update

Update your esx build

esxupdate update

To find more information about what switches esxupdate has do

man esxupdate

Install Released Patches

To install patches released by VMWare download them and transfer them to your esx server

scp -r patchrootdir user@server:/tmp/patches

ssh into your ESX server with your local ESX server account.

ssh servername

One you are on the host change user to root

su -

If you copied over the zip files change directory to the patches location and unzip all the patches

cd /tmp/patches
for i in *.zip; do unzip $i; done; rm *.zip

Now install the patches

for j in ESX*; do cd $j; esxupdate --noreboot update;  cd ..; done
Note: If there are dependancies and not all of them are install just run the command above twice.

Feel free to email me if you have questions