Patching vCenter

Patching vCenter

Sometimes you need to deploy a very specific vCenter build. For example SimpliVity requires it for integration and doesn't support versions not tested yet. Take the compatibility guide below.

So I wanted to deploy build 15132721. I had a look at the versions of vCenter I had to hand and what I could download from the patch site. I could get build 13843380 full appliance version and then grab the patch to build 15132721, or so I thought. I went onsite and found after I deployed the base build, it would NOT accept the patch. I was in a black zone so I retreated to find out more. Upon researching this I found out that you can't cross the streams....i.e. you can patch within updates but NOT cross between them. My base version was 6.7 U2 and the patch was for 6.7 U3b. While it is a rollup patch, it is ONLY a rollup for 6.7 U3 deployments. See VMware documentation states the following:

"VMware makes patches available on a monthly basis. These patches can only be applied in between major releases of vCenter Server Appliance. For example, patches released for the initial release of vCenter Server Appliance 6.7, are not applicable to vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 Update 1, as any patches previously made available will be included with the Update 1 release."

So, now I wanted to know what were my options. If you have a full MyVMware account you can download a full build of vCenter 6.7 U3b build 15132721 all ready to go. That's what I did in this case.

My question is its possible to still deploy my vCenter with just patch site downloads? So, I would deploy with update 2 and upgrade it to update 3 and then update 3b? Two stages in total, and I was just missing one patch in my earlier scenario if so. I deployed the base build 13843380 to my lab and found the following:

Here is the appliance upgrade checker with file VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-6.7.0.42000-15132721-patch-FP.iso attached:

And here it is with file VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-6.7.0.40000-14367737-patch-FP.iso attached:

So, I can go from 6.7 U2 to U3 but not beyond. So let's try this two step process as depicted below

So, I updates to U3 fine and then attached the U3b iso and it this time was happy to show the update:

I then validated the desired version had been reached:

 Now the lab vcenter appliance view shows additional patches (it's allowed to as it's on the internet)

So, this is just to help me keep in mind when grabbing patches for vCenter to not assume that cumulative updates will work across update releases, grab the intermediate ones also just to be sure and it possible get the full install for the exact version you're after if you've access to it and the time.