You can uninstall third-party VIBs or VMware VIBs from your ESXi host, unless the VIB is part of a Component that is required for the ESXi lifecycle or a driver.

VMware partners prepare third-party VIBs to provide management agents or asynchronously released drivers.
Important: Starting with ESXi 8.0 Update 2, removing some VIBs from their Components can cause runtime issues with ESXi.
Table 1. VIBs required for ESXi image completeness.
Component VIBs
ESXi bmcal
bmcal-esxio
clusterstore
cpu-microcode
crx
drivervm-gpu
esx-base
esx-dvfilter-generic-fastpath
esx-ui
esx-xserver
esxio
esxio-base
esxio-combiner
esxio-combiner-esxio
esxio-dvfilter-generic-fastpath
gc
gc-esxio
native-misc-drivers
infravisor
native-misc-drivers-esxio
pensandoatlas
trx
vdfs
vsan
vsanhealth
esx-update esx-update
loadesx
esxio-update esxio-update
loadesxio
Intel-ne1000 ne1000
Mellanox-nmlx5 nmlx5-core
nmlx5-rdma
nmlx5-rdma-esxio
nmlx5-core-esxio
nmlx5-cc
nmlx5-cc-esxio
Mellanox-nmlxbf-gige nmlxbf-gige-esxio
nipmi nipmi
Pensando-ionic-en ionic-en-esxio
ionic-en
VMware-ahci vmw-ahci
VMware-bfedac bfedac-esxio
VMware-dwi2c dwi2c
dwi2c-esxio
VMware-iser iser
VMware-mlnx-bfbootctl mlnx-bfbootctl-esxio
VMware-mnet mnet-esxio
VMware-nmlxbf-pmc nmlxbf-pmc-esxio
VMware-NVMe-PCIe nvme-pcie
nvme-pcie-esxio
VMware-nvme-pcie-plugin lsuv2-nvme-pcie-plugin
VMware-nvme-plugin vmware-esx-esxcli-nvme-plugin-esxio
vmware-esx-esxcli-nvme-plugin
VMware-NVMeoF-RDMA nvmerdma
VMware-NVMeoF-TCP nvmetcp
nvmetcp-esxio
VMware-nvmxnet3 nvmxnet3
nvmxnet3-esxio
VMware-nvmxnet3-ens nvmxnet3-ens-esxio
nvmxnet3-ens
VMware-penedac penedac-esxio
VMware-pengpio pengpio-esxio
VMware-penspi penspi-esxio
VMware-pvscsi pvscsi
pvscsi-esxio
VMware-rd1173 rd1173-esxio
VMware-SDHCI-Driver vmksdhci
vmksdhci-esxio
VMware-spidev spidev-esxio
VMware-vmkata vmkata
VMware-vmkusb vmkusb
vmkusb-esxio

Install ESXCLI. See Getting Started with ESXCLI. For troubleshooting, run esxcli commands in the ESXi Shell.

Prerequisites

  • If the removal requires a reboot, and if the host belongs to a vSphere HA cluster, deactivate HA for the host.

  • Determine whether the update requires the host to be in maintenance mode or to be rebooted. If necessary, place the host in maintenance mode.

    See See if ESXi Host Update Requires Maintenance Mode or Reboot. See Place a Host in Maintenance Mode.
    Note: To ensure that the boot disk is not actively in use when you use ESXCLI to update or upgrade the host, put the host manually in maintenance mode.

  • Install ESXCLI. See Getting Started with ESXCLI. For troubleshooting, run esxcli commands in the ESXi Shell.

Procedure

  1. Power off each virtual machine running on the ESXi host.
    Note: You can list all running virtual machines and retrieve the World ID of each one by running the following command. 
    esxcli --server=<server_name> vm process list
    Option Command
    To shut down the guest operating system and then power off the virtual machine 
    esxcli --server=<server_name> vm process kill --type soft --world-id <vm_ID>
    To power off the virtual machine immediately 
    esxcli --server=<server_name> vm process kill --type hard --world-id <vm_ID>
    To force the power off operation 
    esxcli --server=<server_name> vm process kill --type force --world-id <vm_ID>

    Alternatively, to avoid powering off virtual machines, you can migrate them to another host. See the topic Migrating Virtual Machines in the vCenter Server and Host Management documentation.

  2. Place the host in maintenance mode. 
    esxcli --server=<server_name> system maintenanceMode set --enable true
  3. If necessary, shut down or migrate virtual machines.
  4. Determine which VIBs are installed on the host. 
    esxcli --server=<server_name> software vib list
  5. Remove the VIB. 
    esxcli --server=<server_name> software vib remove --vibname=<name>

    Specify one or more VIBs to remove in one of the following forms.

    • <name>
    • <name>:<version>
    • <vendor>:<name>
    • <vendor>:<name>:<version>

    For example, the command to remove a VIB specified by vendor, name and version can take the following form.

    esxcli –-server myEsxiHost software vib remove --vibname=PatchVendor:patch42:version3
    Note: The remove command supports several more options. See the ESXCLI Reference.