Upgrading Virtual Machines and VMware Tools

After you upgrade an ESXi host, you can upgrade the virtual machines on the host to take advantage of new features.

You have the following tools for upgrading virtual machines.

vSphere Client

You can use the vSphere Client to upgrade a virtual machine step by step. For more information about upgrading virtual machines, see the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration documentation.

vSphere Lifecycle Manager

You can use the vSphere Lifecycle Manager to upgrade the virtual machine hardware and VMware Tools versions of the virtual machines in your environment. The vSphere Lifecycle Manager automates the upgrade process and verifies that the steps occur in the correct order. For more information, see the Managing Host and Cluster Lifecycle documentation.