Upgrade ESXi 5.5 to 6.0 via ssh

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I recently updated an ESXi 5.5 host to 6. This is a remote machine so didnt have access to load the ISO. This is how i did it via SSH and ESXCLI.

Running through the ESXi update:

Shut down all running VM’s

Put ESXi host into maintenance mode

vim-cmd /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter

Allow httpClient access out through the firewall.

esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e true -r httpClient

Run the following command to download and install the update. Make sure you use “update” here DO NOT use “install” as it may overwrite drivers that you need.

esxcli software profile update -d 
https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml
 -p ESXi-6.0.0-20150404001-standard

Once that is complete, go ahead and reboot the host

After your host has rebooted, take it out of Maintenance mode

vim-cmd /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_exit

That should be it.