How to update Dell customized VMWare ESXi 5.5 hosts

Question

We've got two Dell R720 hosts running the Dell customized version of ESXi 5.5 they were installed with in 2014. I'd like to get these up to the latest patch level but am unsure how to do so. We are strictly a Linux environment, so are not able to run VMWare Update Manager. I've found some instructions for doing this update using esxcli that look something like this:

esxcli software profile update -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml -p ESXi-5.5.0-20161204001-standard

But if I understand correctly this will take me to a "vanilla" install without Dell's custom features.

I like to think I'm a pretty competent Linux system and network admin, but I have little experience managing ESXi — these servers were set up and installed by outside consultants — and there's a lot of jargon around this process. So, hoping someone who's done this before can provide a step-by-step list. Thanks!

Answer 1

Some months later and I've done this update. The command above does the update without touching the Dell custom files. Here's what I ended up running:

esxcli system maintenanceMode set -e true
esxcli system maintenanceMode get
esxcli system version get
esxcli software profile update -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml -p ESXi-5.5.0-20170304001-standard
esxcli system shutdown reboot -r post-upgrade

esxcli system version get
esxcli system maintenanceMode set -e false

Running esxcli software vib list still shows a bunch of Dell, Broadcom, etc. entries from 2014, but many of the VMWare items have been updated. According to a random blog comment, Dell does not provide updates in a form that can be used by esxcli and have to be done with VUM.