{"id":482,"date":"2023-12-22T13:55:15","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T12:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zerobotics.de\/blog\/?p=482"},"modified":"2023-12-22T14:18:11","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T13:18:11","slug":"change-an-air-gapped-vsphere-lifecycle-manager-from-baseline-to-single-image","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zerobotics.de\/blog\/en\/change-an-air-gapped-vsphere-lifecycle-manager-from-baseline-to-single-image\/","title":{"rendered":"Change an Air-Gapped vSphere Lifecycle Manager from Baseline to Single Image"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time<\/span> 2<\/span> Minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few days back i had the challenge to convert a vSphere 7.0 U3 Cluster (which was still managed in Lifecylce Manager with Baselines \u2013> which are finally going away after vSphere 8, btw., so it\u2019s time to migrate, folks!) to a Single Image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not going into details about vSphere Lifecycle Manager with Single Image and\/or Baselines here, there\u2019s lot\u2019s of other stuff to read about that on the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The challenge here was that the vCenter had no connection to the internet, so all the benefits like giving me a long list of ESXi releases and Vendor Add-Ons was not the case, and I couldn\u2019t find any advice in the documentation on how to do it \u201eoffline\u201c and seperated from the World Wide Web.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, let me show you how I did it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Conversion \u2013 First Try<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

First step was to select the cluster in my vCenter UI, navigate to the Updates tab and choose \u201eManage with a Single Image\u201c\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Choose \u201eManage with a Single Image\u201c<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u2026and hit \u201eSetup Image\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Hit \u201eSetup Image\u201c<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

But oh no, the list for the ESXi releases is empty \ud83d\ude25<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Oh no, it\u2019s empty \ud83d\ude41<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Usually, this list would be filled with Information received via the World Wide Web with all the nice ESXi versions we know and love, including the current version of my ESXi Hosts.
I would then have simply chosen my current ESXi version and created an image from that\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026but unfortunately this is not possible in an air-gapped environment. \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Download the necessary files<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The next step is to download this version on our own, so let\u2019s got to VMware Customer Connect<\/a> and login.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then go to Products and Accounts >> Product Patches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Products and Accounts >> Product Patches is where we go.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Choose \u201eESXi\u201c and the main version you need (in my case it is 7.0) and hit Search and it will come up with all available patches in a zipped format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The version I was looking for was 7.0U3g and yeah, there it is. Download the \u201e\u2026depot.zip\u201c.
(You could also already go on and download the version you want to go for as a next step.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Fantastic, I got the right version.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Get the files into Lifecycle Manager<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Back to the vSphere Client, jump to the Lifecycle Manager again<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Go to Lifecycle Manager Administration<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Nothing in ther Image Depot yet, so far so good<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Clean as a whistle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Next step is to import the downloaded depot.zip into Lifecycle Manager.
Go to \u201eActions >> Import Updates\u201c to do that, chose the depot.zip file and hit \u201eImport\u201c.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Import the Update<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

This is how it looks during import:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Afterwards, the ESXi version we just imported will show in the Image Depot<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As you can see, I also already imported the versions I (might) want to go to after I converted my cluster to \u201eImage based\u201c.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Conversion \u2013 Next Try<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Back to my Cluster, navigate to the Updates tab and again, choose \u201eManage with a single image\u201c and \u201eSetup Image\u201c.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nice, all my imported Updates now show up in the list to choose from. \ud83d\udc4d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
All imported versions show up in the ESXi list<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

I choose my current version, click save and successfully converted my cluster to \u201eImage Based Lifecycle Management\u201c \ud83c\udf89<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Done. Cluster converted to Image with the current version.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time<\/span> 2<\/span> Minutes<\/span><\/span>A few days back i had the challenge to convert a vSphere 7.0 U3 Cluster (which was still managed in Lifecylce Manager with Baselines –> which are finally going away after vSphere 8, btw., so it’s time to migrate, folks!) to a Single Image. I’m not going into details about vSphere Lifecycle Manager with Single […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vsphere-en"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t