This tutorial will guide you in how to create a VMware ESXi 5 upgrade image which includes the Nexus 1000v VEM, by using VMware PowerCLI. If you don’t already have VMware PowerCLI you can download it by clicking here.
Creating an ESXi 5 Upgrade Image with Nexus1000v in PowerCLI
1. Make sure you have downloaded the ESXi 5 upgrade bundle and the Cisco Nexus1000v software. In this tutorial I’m using VMware Upgrade Image 5.0 with Update 1 update-from-esxi5.0-5.0_update01.zip and the Cisco Nexus1000v version 4.2(1) SV(1)5.1 VEM500-201201140102-BG-release.zip
Open up VMware PowerCLI which will bring you to the PowerCLI prompt. First 3 commands we will type in might produce errors if the setting has previously been set. You can disregard these errors.
Set-ExecutionPolicyremotesigned
Set-ExecutionPolicy unrestricted
get-esximageprofile You should not see anything here, it should just jump to the next line.
add-esxsoftwaredepot %location-of-esxi5-upgrade-bundle%update-from-esxi5.0-5.0_update01.zip This command adds the zip file to the Software Depot.
add-esxsoftwaredepot %location-of-nexus1000v-softwareVEM500-201201140102-BG-release.zip This command also adds the zip file to the Software Depot
get-esximageprofile This command shows you the image contents of the update-from-esxi5.0-5.0_update01.zip file. There are 3 types, standard, no-tools and security only. Images ended in s i.e. ESXi-5.0.0-20120301001s-standard are security updates only. We will be using the ESXi-5.0.0-20120302001-standard
new-esximageprofile -Cloneprofile ESXi-5.0.0-20120302001-standard -Name ESXi5-N1000v-UPGRADE In this step we are creating the image ESXi5 image profile, in the next step we will add the Nexus1000v software to the image.
add-esxsoftwarepackage -Imageprofile ESXi5-N1000v-UPGRADE -Softwarepackage cisco-vem-v140-esx We have now added our Cisco Nexus1000v software to the ESXi 5 Upgrade Image.
export-esximageprofile -imageprofile ESXi5-N1000v-UPGRADE -Filepath %output-filepath%ESXi5-N1000v-Upgrade.iso -Exporttoiso This command takes out Image Profile with both the ESXi5 Upgrade and Nexus 1000v software and creates an Update Image ISO which we can later use in VMware Update Manager (VUM)
As you can see in my C:Temp folder at the bottom right, my ISO image is created via the previous PowerCLI commands and is around 303MB.
All the tutorials included on this site are performed in a lab environment to simulate a real world production scenario. As everything is done to provide the most accurate steps to date, we take no responsibility if you implement any of these steps in a production environment.
Can you use this to upgrade from 4.1 ESX directly to 5.0 Update 1
No unfortunately there is no direct upgrade path from ESX to ESXi without re-installing. However if you have ESXi 4.1, then yes you can use this image