ESXi 6.5 to 7 Upgrade Using ESXCLI: Essential Steps

To upgrade from VMware 6.5 to 7 using ESXCLI, you can follow the steps below ¹:

1. Verify that your system meets the upgrade requirements. See ESXi Requirements ¹.
2. Prepare your environment before upgrading. See Before Upgrading ESXi Hosts ¹.
3. Determine where you want to locate and boot the ESXi installer. See Media Options for Booting the ESXi Installer ¹.
4. Connect to the ESXi host using SSH.
5. Put the host into maintenance mode. See Enter Maintenance Mode for a Host ¹.
6. Run the following command to stage the upgrade: esxcli software profile update -p ESXi-7.0.0-xxxxxxx-standard -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore/ESXi700/ESXi-7.0.0-xxxxxxx-standard.zip ¹.
7. Run the following command to start the upgrade: esxcli software profile update -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore/ESXi700/ESXi-7.0.0-xxxxxxx-standard.zip -p ESXi-7.0.0-xxxxxxx-standard ¹.
8. After the upgrade is complete, reboot the host. See Reboot the Host After an Upgrade ¹.

Please note that the details and level of support for an upgrade to ESXi 7.0 depend on the host to be upgraded and the upgrade method that you use ¹. Verify that the upgrade path from your current version of ESXi to the version to which you are upgrading is supported ¹. For more information, see the VMware Product Interoperability Matrices at ¹.