HOW TO: Upgrade VMware ESXi 5.5 to ESXi 6.0 in 5 easy steps

In previous articles, I've outlined how to upgrade from ESXi 5.1 to ESXi 6.0, however, as many upgraded to 5.5 and are looking to now transition to ESXi 6.0,I wanted to outline the quick steps to do so. In this article, I'll explain how to upgrade ESXi 5.5 to ESXi 6.0 in 5 easy steps.  

Before we get started:
It is important to ensure you have valid backups of your virtual machines before you make any changes to a Production VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi 5.5 Host server, which is hosting virtual machines.Additionally all virtual machines must be powered off, and the server in maintenance mode.

Here are the steps to upgrade your software:

 1. Download ESXi 6.0 Offline Bundle

• Download the ESXi 6.0 Offline Bundle from VMware here
• The file is called VMware-ESXi-6.0.0-2494585-depot.zip, check the following:
  
  • MD5SUM: bebc48450b9743c56073602931d63600 
  • SHA1SUM: 79bf372bb7cd70bbbf2dd5f5819a7830468e2b7e
• Signatures are correct with the published figures above. See my Experts Exchange article Part 3: HOW TO: Create an ISO CD-ROM/DVD-ROM image (*.iso), and MD5 checksum signature, for use with VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1) to see how to check these checksum signatures to make sure they are correct for your offline bundle upgrade.

 
2. Upload the offline bundle to an ESXi 5.5 datastore

• Upload the offline patch bundle to an ESXi 5.5 datastore, we will be uploading the patch bundle to datastore1 on our ESXi 5.5 host server. If you require additional help, on how to upload this file to the ESXi datastore, please see my Experts Exchange article Part 4: HOW TO: Upload an ISO CD-ROM/DVD-ROM image to a VMware datastore for use with VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1) using the vSphere Client, and checking its MD5 checksum signature is correct.

 3. Connect to the ESXi 5.5 host server via SSH

• Connect to the ESXi 5.5 host server via SSH. If your ESXi 5.5 server is not enabled for SSH, please see my Experts Exchange article Part 5: HOW TO: Enable SSH Remote Access on a VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1).
• Step 3 in the following Experts Exchange article details SSH access to an ESXi host server Part 4: HOW TO: Upload an ISO CD-ROM/DVD-ROM image to a VMware datastore for use with VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1) using the vSphere Client, and checking its MD5 checksum signature is correct.

• At the console prompt, type vmware -l to confirm the ESXi version. VMware ESXi 5.1.0 GA or later should be returned, though this will depend upon whether any patches have been applied.

 
4. Use esxcli at the console command line to upgrade the server

• At the console, type:

 

• The above command does not produce any feedback if entered correctly. After approximately 20 seconds, the upgrade should be completed, though we have found that if you are using slow USB flash drives and SD cards, this can take considerably longer for the files to be written. You will be presented with the following screen upon completion:

 

• If all is well, you should see a update screen, shown above, though you may have to scroll the screen to see all the information. Check the update result at the top. The update should have completed successfully, and the system should be rebooted for the changes to be effective.
• You can see new VIB packages (driver packages) installed, removed, and none of the VIBs should have been skipped. If you are using an OEM version of VMware ESXi 5.5 (e.g. from HP, IBM or Dell), your output could be different.

• Type reboot to reboot the server.

 
5. Check that the ESXi 5.5 Host server has been upgraded

• Check the following:
  
  • The Console Screen should report VMware ESXi 6.0.0 (VMKernel Release Build 2494585)

Congratulations, you have successfully upgraded your host server from VMware ESXi 5.5to VMware ESXi 6.0.

Basic VMware Articles Series: 

During this series of articles, VMware released VMware vSphere 5.5 and VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi 5.5. These articles are also applicable to VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi 5.0 and 5.5. For consistency, I have used VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi 5.1 throughout this series:
 

• Part 1: HOW TO: Install and Configure VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1)

 

• Part 2: HOW TO: Connect to the VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1) using the vSphere Client

 

• Part 3: HOW TO: Create an ISO CD-ROM/DVD-ROM image (*.iso), and MD5 checksum signature, for use with VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1)

 

• Part 4: HOW TO: Upload an ISO CD-ROM/DVD-ROM image to a VMware datastore for use with VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1) using the vSphere Client, and checking its MD5 checksum signature is correct.

 

• Part 5: HOW TO: Enable SSH Remote Access on a VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1)

 

• Part 6: HOW TO: Create your first Linux Virtual Machine on a VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1) Host Server

 

• Part 7: HOW TO: Create your first Windows Virtual Machine on a VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1) Host Server

 

• Part 8: HOW TO: Install VMware Tools for Windows on a VMware Windows virtual machine on a VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1) Host Server

 

• Part 9: HOW TO: Install VMware Tools for Linux on a VMware Linux virtual machine on a VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1) Host Server

 

• Part 10: HOW TO: Backup (Export) and Restore (Import) virtual machines to VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 for FREE

 

• Part 11: HOW TO: Suppress Configuration Issues System logs on host are stored on non-persistent storage

 

• Part 12: HOW TO: Configure and Replace the SSL Certificate on a VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1) Host Server

 

• Part 13: HOW TO: Shrink or Reduce a VMware Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) using VMware vCenter Converter Standalone v5.5.2

 

• ​Part 14: HOW TO: Configure basic networking on a VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1) Host Server

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