A dynamic baseline is a set of patches that meet certain criteria. The content of a dynamic baseline changes as the available patches change. You can manually exclude or add specific patches to the baseline.

Prerequisites

Required privileges: VMware vSphere Lifecycle Manager.Manage Baselines

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the vSphere Lifecycle Manager home view.
    1. In the vSphere Client, select Menu > Lifecycle Manager.
    2. Select a vCenter Server system from the Lifecycle Manager drop-down menu.
      The drop-down menu is available only when multiple vCenter Server systems are connected by a common vCenter Single Sign-On domain. By selecting a vCenter Server system, you specify which vSphere Lifecycle Manager instance you want to administer.
  2. On the Baselines tab, select New > Baseline.
    The Create Baseline wizard appears.
  3. On the Name and Description page, enter information about the baseline and click Next.
    1. Enter a name and, optionally, a description for the baseline.
    2. Select the Upgrade, Patch, or Extension radio button.
  4. On the Select Patches Automatically page, set the criteria for adding patches to the baseline.
    1. Enable the automatic update of the baseline by selecting the respective check box.
    2. On the Criteria tab, specify the criteria that a patch must meet to be added to the baseline and click Next.
      Option Description
      Patch Vendor Specifies which patch vendor to use.
      Note: In vSphere 7.0, the vendor name of VMware for inbox components has changed from VMware, Inc to VMware. As a result, if you use the filter to see only components by VMware, the filtered list contains both VMware, Inc for 6.x patches and VMware for 7.0 patches.
      Product

      Restricts the set of patches to the selected products or operating systems.

      The asterisk at the end of a product name is a wildcard character for any version number.

      Severity Specifies the severity of patches to include.
      Category Specifies the category of patches to include.
      Release Date Specifies the range for the release dates of the patches.
      The relationship between these fields is defined by the Boolean operator AND.
      For example, when you select a product and severity option, the patches are restricted to the ones that are applicable for the selected product and are of the specified severity level.
    3. (Optional) On the Matched tab, deselect patches from the ones that matched your criteria to exclude them permanently from the baseline.
    4. (Optional) On the Excluded and Selected tabs, view the patches that are are excluded from the baseline and the ones that are included in the baseline.
    You can use the filter icon next to each column header on the Matched, Excluded, and Selected tabs to filter the patches that are available in the vSphere Lifecycle Manager depot. This way, you can easily find specific patches to exclude from or include in the baseline. If you use several criteria to filter the patches, the relationship between those filter criteria is defined by the Boolean operator AND.
  5. On the Select Patches Manually page, select individual patches to include in the baseline and click Next.
    The patches that are displayed on this page are patches that do not meet the criteria you set on the Select Patches Automatically page. You can use the filter icon next to each column header to filter the patches that are available in the vSphere Lifecycle Manager depot and find specific patches to include in the baseline. If you use several criteria to filter the patches, the relationship between those filter criteria is defined by the Boolean operator AND.

    The patches that you add manually to the dynamic baseline stay in the baseline regardless of the automatically downloaded patches.

  6. On the Summary page, review your selections and click Finish.

Results

The new baseline appears in the baselines list on the Baselines tab.You can attach the baseline to a data center, a cluster, or a host.