If an in-place upgrade fails for an ESXi 7.0 host, except when you see a PSOD, vMotion the VMs out of the host and then reboot the host.

Solution

  1. Log in to VMware vCenter and place the host in maintenance mode.
  2. For an ESXi 7.0 host, use the following command to clear the upgrade status flag on the host:
    nsxcli -c set host-switch upgrade-status false
  3. vMotion the VM's out of the host.
  4. Reboot the host and resume the upgrade process.