Adding Third-Party Extensions to Hosts

The process of adding patches is simplified in ESXi 5.0 and later. All patches and third-party extensions can be made available as VIB packages. When a VMware partner releases a third-party extension as a VIB package, the partner can make the package available as a ZIP depot (offline depot).

1	Download the ZIP depot to your ESXi system but do not unpack it.

2	Run esxcli software vib to add the package to your system.

3	Reboot your ESXi system

Reboot is always recommended. Some patches do not require reboot.

The VIB system refreshes the host daemon after you reboot your system. If the VIB requires an exception to the firewall rules, rebooting also updates the firewall ruleset.

You can instead use a firewall configuration file to specify port rules for host services you want to enable for the extension.

vSphere Security documentation discusses how to add, apply, and refresh a firewall rule set and lists the esxcli network firewall commands. The ESXi 5.0 and later ruleset.xml format is the same as in ESX/ESXi 4.x, but has two additional tags, enabled and required. The firewall on ESXi 5.0 and on ESXi 5.1 still supports the old format.

vSphere Upgrade documentation discusses using esxcli software sources and esxcli software vib to explore and install patches and extensions.

In some situations, you might use vSphere Update Manager instead of the esxcli command to install third-party extensions. The extension vendor provides information on the install or upgrade process.