How to update and upgrade ESXi host

Please find the below steps and command to update and upgrade the ESX host.

You need to understand first, the update and upgrade both are different thing in case of ESX.

Update means you have update the VMware release build.

Upgrade means you have upgrade the VMware version like 5.0 to 6.0 

Please find the below command to update the VMware release build:

# esxcli software vib update -d /vmfs/volumes/updates/VMware-ESXi-5.1.0-Update3-2323236-HPE-510.9.5.0.30-Apr2016-depot.zip

It is asking for reboot please press true and reboot the esx host gracefully, once the host reboot successfully check the new release build. 

Please find the below steps to upgrade the ESX host:

Now we need to upgrade the ESX host from 5.1.0 to 5.5.0 , to perform this task please follow the below steps

Take a remote console of this ESX host from ILO.

Copy the VMware-ESXi-5.5U1-Rollup_2ISO.iso

attached the iso with remote console

boot the ESX host with attached iso VMware-ESXi-5.5U1-Rollup_2ISO.iso

When esx boot this iso during upgrade process it is asking for you 3 option, please select the below option.

Upgrade the ESX host with keeping existing datastore.

Once the upgrade will be successfully, please login on the esx host and check the latest version and all service will working fine.

Please let me know if you have any question regarding this upgrade issue.