vSphere 5.5 was released on the 22nd of September and I thought it would be a great time to test out the upgrade/update from the command line.

Connect to the Shell using your preferred Terminal tool (putty).

Before going a head with this I would check that the update has all the required VIB's for your host. some may not included in the standard version.

It is also recommended that you disable any SAN connections \ Unplug  ( Thanks Bhargav for mentioning this "http://www.bhargavs.com/")

Firstly check what version of ESXI you are running by the following cmd:

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~ # VMware -l

 As you can see from the screenshot, I have already upgraded to 5.5

Check that you are running 5.1... now for the upgrade

you will need to enable the httpclient if you haven't already done so:

~ # esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e true -r httpClient

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~ # esxcli software profile update -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml -p ESXi-5.5.0-1331820-standard

 this process will take a while as the update files will be downloading...

To check the progress, run the following cmd:

~ # tail -f /var/log/esxupdate.log

 Once everything is complete, restart your host and then check the version.

There you have it .. Quick way to upgrade you ESXi host.

Links:

VMware vsphere 5.5 release notes

VMware vsphere 5.1u1 release notes