VMware regularly releases patches for the vCenter Server Appliance that might be related to third-party products in the platform, core product functionality, or both. You can use the Appliance Management Interface or the appliance shell to apply patches to a vCenter Server Appliance that contains a vCenter Server with an embedded Platform Services Controller, a vCenter Server with an external Platform Services Controller, or a Platform Services Controller.

VMware makes patches available on a monthly basis. These patches can only be applied in between major releases of vCenter Server Appliance. For example, patches released for the initial release of vCenter Server Appliance 6.7, are not applicable to vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 Update 1, as any patches previously made available will be included with the Update 1 release.

These patches can be for core product functionality, other packages in the vCenter Server such as Photon, or both.
Note: You must use only the patches provided by VMware to update the packages in your vCenter Server. Updating these packages through any other means may impact the product functionality.
VMware distributes the available patches in two forms, one for ISO-based and one for URL-based models of patching.
  • You can download the patch ISO images from https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/patch.
    VMware publishes a single type of ISO image that contains patches.
    Download Filename Description
    VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-product_version-build_number-patch-FP.iso Full product patch for the vCenter Server Appliance and Platform Services Controller appliance, which contains the VMware software patches and the fixes related to security and third-party products (e.g. JRE and Photon OS components).
  • You can configure the vCenter Server Appliance and Platform Services Controller appliance to use a repository URL as a source of available patches. The appliance is preset with a default VMware repository URL.

    You can download the patches in ZIP format from the VMware Web site at https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/downloads and build a custom repository on a local Web server. The download filename is VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-product_version-build_number-updaterepo.zip.

Before you update a vCenter Server Appliance with an external Platform Services Controller, you must apply the patches to the Platform Services Controller and its replicating partners, if any in the vCenter Single Sign-On domain. For more information, see Update sequence for vSphere 6.0 and its compatible VMware products.