Extension baselines contain additional software for ESXi hosts. This additional software might be VMware software or third-party software.

Extensions deliver additional host features, updated drivers for hardware, Common Information Model (CIM) providers for managing third-party modules on the host, improvements to the performance or usability of the existing host features, and so on.

The host extension baselines that you create are always fixed. You must carefully select the appropriate extensions for the ESXi hosts in your environment.

You use extension baselines to install extensions on the ESXi hosts in your environment. After an extension is installed on a host, you can update the extension module through either patch, or extension baselines.

Note: When you use extension baselines, you must be aware of the functional implications that the installation of new modules on the host might have. Extension modules might alter the behavior of ESXihosts. During the installation of extensions, vSphere Lifecycle Manager only performs the checks and verifications expressed at the package level.

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 Extension radio button.
  4. On the Select Extensions page, select individual extensions to include in the baseline and click Next.
    You can use the filter icon next to each column header to filter the extensions that are available in the vSphere Lifecycle Manager depot and find specific extensions 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.
  5. On the Select Extensions page, select individual extensions to include in the baseline and click Next.
  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.