How to easily update your VMware vCenter Server Appliance from VCSA 6.5 to 6.5.0a
Important Update - On Mar 20 2018, VMware VMSA-2018-0004.3 announced that CVE-2017-5715 (Spectre-2) mitigation is now included in the latest patch that you should be using instead of the older patch featured in the original article below. You'll find the newer article here:
Article below as it originally appeared.
VMware Release Notes for vCenter Server Appliance 6.5.0a | 02 FEB 2017 | Build 4944578
Warning:
vCenter/VCSA 6.5 should be upgraded to 6.5.0a before upgrading your host(s) to ESXi 6.5.0a!
Once in a while, things are easy. One of the selling points of making the big move from vCenter+Windows to VCSA has been the ease of VCSA upgrades through the handy VAMI web UI. Yep, works as advertised! This is a very easy upgrade, as shown screen-by-screen below.
Prerequisite
- VCSA 6.5 with internet access
If your VCSA has no internet access, follow the offline install procedure at:
Preparations
Here's my bubble caption at the beginning of the short and simple walk-thru video below:
Do this VCSA 6.5.0a upgrade in a test environment first! Before attempting, you should be sure to have a full backup, such as the simple native VCSA backup button seen at top-right. You can also use a 3rd party backup solution. At a minimum, you can do a snapshot of this VCSA VM before upgrading, make sure everything works alright, then remove the snapshot, ideally within a day or so, to avoid performance degradation
If you're looking for how you get from 6.0.x to 6.5, that's more of a migration, and the right article for you is over here:
If you're looking for how you get from ESXi 6.5.x to 6.5.0a, that article is over here:
Simple Upgrade from VCSA 6.5 to 6.5.0a using VAMI
Video
See also at TinkerTry
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How to easily update your VMware vCenter Server Appliance to VCSA 6.5
Nov 20 2016 - How to easily update your VMware Hypervisor to ESXi 6.5
Nov 20 2016
These systems still work great for many even 9+ years later, mine included, even with (unsupported) vSphere 8 and Windows 11 Version 21H2. But unless you added the optional TPM module, it may be the end of the line as far as repurposing them for running the latest Windows 11 Version 24H2 and beyond.