Update Stand-alone VmWare ESXi

12th April 2022

Step1:
download patch, Ignore patches < 1 month old, patches are cumulative
https://customerconnect.vmware.com/patch
ESXi (not ESX), enter the major build and click search
beside the patch name click View Details
search for “Image Profile Name”
record the first item ending in -standard

Step2:
From ESXi web interface, logon as root
record current host version and build #

If the host uptime is longer than 30days reboot the host before you continue
Storage, datastore1, Location: record this , looks similar to below
/vmfs/volumes/6165b6d0-e96617a9-8a07-3440b5abccac

Datastore browser
create directory (to temporarily store patches)
Upload the patch downloaded in Step1
click into the directory, click on the .zip file, then record the dir+filename from the bottom of the window

enter Maintenance mode
shut down VMs
Host, Manage, Services, click TSM-SSH, click start (you may need to scroll down)

Step3:
Putty/SSH into the ESXi host, run following command
esxcli software profile update -p (Profile name recorded in Step1) -d (Full path to patch zip file, based on storage location from Step2)

eg
esxcli software profile update -p ESXi-6.7.0-20220604001-standard -d /vmfs/volumes/6165b6d0-e96617a9-8a07-3440b5abccac/ESXi_Patches/ESXi670-202206001.zip
you may need to add the following to proceed past warnings –no-hardware-warning

when this is done, reboot the ESXi host
get a coffee
logon to the ESXi host web interface
click Host and verify the Version+build# match what you just installed
Actions, Exit Maintenance mode
Start up VMs
NOTE; SSH will be disabled after reboot, for security reasons leave it disabled

nice article here https://www.techcrumble.net/2019/05/how-to-update-esxi-without-update-manager/