Options for Managing the ESXi Life Cycle

Based on your needs and environment setup, you can choose from several methods for managing the life cycle of the ESXi hosts. The vSphere Lifecycle Manager provides means for updating all hosts in a cluster or a standalone host with a desired software state.

To manage the life cycle of the hosts in your environment, you can use the vSphere Lifecycle Manager through the vSphere Client. See Managing Host and Cluster Lifecycle.

This chapter of the vSphere Automation REST API Programming Guide discusses how you can access and use the functionality provided by the vSphere Lifecycle Manager Automation API.

vSphere Lifecycle Manager Features

You can use the vSphere Automation API to manage the life cycle of all hosts in a cluster or of standalone hosts by using a vSphere Lifecycle Manager image. You can access and use the following vSphere Lifecycle Manager functionality:

• Depot management. You can add, remove, explore the contents of different types of depots. See Software Depots. The content of the depots is provided by VMware and VMware partners. Partners can use the ESXi Packaging Kit (EPK) to assemble a custom bootable ESXi image. The custom image can then be shared to other third-party customers and used through the Depot Manager service. For more information about how to create custom ESXi images, see ESXi Packaging Kit (EPK) Development Guide.
• Desired software state. You can create, edit, and delete a desired software state for a cluster or a standalone host on which the vSphere Lifecycle Manager is enabled. A desired software state must contain at least a single ESXi image provided by VMware. You can also set an add-on provided by OEMs, and one or more components by different software vendors. Furthermore, during the process of creating the desired software state, you can check the validity of the specification and compare the current state of the hosts in the cluster or the standalone host with the desired software state.
• Cluster remediation. You can apply the desired state on each of the hosts in a cluster which current state is different from the desired specification. Applying a desired state on a cluster level has the following prerequisites:
  • The cluster must have the vSphere Lifecycle Manager enabled.
  • All hosts in the cluster must store their data on a local or remote disk, or on a USB drive.
  • All hosts in the cluster must be of version 7.0 or higher.
  • All hosts must contain only components that the vSphere Lifecycle Manager can recognize and maintain. If a host contains some old content that the vSphere Lifecycle Manager does not recognize, the content is removed from the host during remediation.
• Standalone host remediation. You can apply the desired software state on a standalone host that is managed with baselines or on a standalone host that is managed with images but its current state differs from the desired state.