vSphere 6.7 simplifies and enhances the capabilities for patching and upgrading ESXi hosts and the vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA). In addition, vSphere 6.7 introduces many new features and improvements, such as the vCSA with the integrated vSphere Update Manager (VUM), vCenter HA, and more. Thanks to those features, migration to the latest release is highly recommended.

The VUM service is now fully integrated into the vCSA and no longer requires an additional external Windows server. The embedded VUM can also benefit from the vCenter HA feature for redundancy. VUM is enabled by default, and only a minor configuration is required so that you have a system that's ready to handle patches and upgrade tasks. You will also learn how to patch ESXi hosts using the command line in situation where you do not have vCenter Server.

vSphere 6.7 includes a migration tool that allows administrators to easily and quickly migrate from vCenter for Windows to VCSA.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• Patching a vSphere 6.7 environment
• Upgrading workflow and procedures
• Upgrading the vCSA
• vCenter 6.5 for Windows to vCenter 6.7 for Windows
• vCenter 6.5 for Windows to vCSA 6.7 migration
• Upgrading standalone ESXi servers
• VUM
• Updating the vCSA