You import ESXi images in ISO format to the vSphere Lifecycle Manager local depot, so that you can create upgrade baselines, which you use for host upgrade operations.

You can use ESXi .iso images to upgrade ESXi 6.5.x hosts and ESXi 6.7.x hosts to ESXi 7.0.

With vSphere Lifecycle Manager 7.0, you cannot perform ESXi upgrades to version 6.7 or 6.5.

ISO images can only be used with vSphere Lifecycle Manager baselines. You cannot use an ISO image to upgrade the hosts in a cluster that uses a single image.

To upgrade hosts, use the ESXi installer image distributed by VMware with the name format VMware-VMvisor-Installer-7.0.0-build_number.x86_64.iso or a custom image created by using vSphere ESXi Image Builder. You can also use ISO images created and distributed by OEMs.

Prerequisites

Required privileges: VMware vSphere Lifecycle Manager.Upload File

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 Imported ISOs tab, click Import ISO
  3. In the Import ISO dialog box, select an image.
    • Click the Browse button to import an ESXi image from your local system.
    • Enter an URL address to import an ESXi image that is not on your local system.
    Local images are imported immediately, whereas importing images from a URL takes some time.
  4. Click Import.

Results

The ISO image that you uploaded appears in the list of images. You can view information about the ESXi image, such as product, version, and build details, vendor, acceptance level, and creation date.

What to do next

Create a host upgrade baseline.