Upgrading standalone ESXi host compute firmware using vSphere Lifecycle Manager

Unified Compute Platform (UCP) Advisor Administration Guide
Version
4.5.x
Audience
anonymous
Part Number
MK-92UCP119-13
ft:lastEdition
2024-03-11

As an option for VMware solutions, you can use vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) to upgrade the firmware on a standalone ESXi host when you install or upgrade ESXi and firmware on new or existing hosts. Upgrades for BMC, BIOS, and I/O card firmware are supported. CPLD upgrade is not supported.

Note:
  • Firmware upgrade using vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) on standalone host is supported on vSphere 8.0U2 only.
  • The compute I/O card firmware will not be upgraded if the BMC and BIOS are already updated to the latest versions.
  • Verify that the compute servers (hosting ESXi) onboarded to UCP Advisor are in a vCenter ESXi data center.
  • Onboard/add the compute node along with ESXi details to the UCP system in UCP Advisor.
  • Upload the supported firmware bundle/hardware support package to UCP Advisor.
  • Verify that the vCenter hosting the compute server is registered in UCP Advisor (with Hardware Support Manager (HSM) and client plugins deployed) and that the vCenter has been attached to the UCP system where the compute nodes have been added.

  • Verify that the UCP Advisor HSM plugin is registered on the vCenter server.

    Note: The vCenter HSM plugin is automatically registered when the vCenter client plugin is registered.
  1. Browse to the ESXi host in the data center where you want to upgrade the firmware.
  2. Select Updates.

    View updates

    This step is only valid if the image is already set up. After it is set up, you can view it. The image setup procedure can be found in https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2020/04/vsphere-7-patching-lifecycle-management.html.

  3. Verify that the ESXi version displayed is the version you want to apply to the selected ESXi host.
  4. In the Image pane, click Edit.
  5. For Firmware and Drivers Addon, click Select.
  6. From the hardware support manager list, select UCP Advisor Plugin.

    Select UCP Advisor Plugin

  7. Select the firmware and driver addon that you want to apply to the nodes.
  8. Click Select.
  9. Click Validate to validate the image.

    Validate the image

  10. Click Save.
    The image is checked for compliance automatically.
    Check Image Compliance

    You can toggle between the Full comparison and the Only drift comparison to see all the information.

    The firmware compliance table will only show compliance details for BMC and BIOS firmware. Card firmware compliance will not be scanned for through the Check Compliance operation.

  11. Click Run Pre-check to perform several pre-checks on the host to determine whether it is ready for the firmware to be upgraded.
  12. Review the remediation impact summary information, including the notes.

    Review Remediation Report

  13. When done, click Start Remediation.

    You can check the status of the firmware upgrade in the UCP Advisor tasks panel and overall cluster image upgrade in the vCenter tasks panel.


    View the firmware upgrade status

    The upgrade could take up to 90 minutes for each host.
The firmware on all the hosts that are out of compliance is upgraded.