Fresh install HPE Gen8 ESXi 6.5 to 6.7 update

2023 update: This post is not really up to date anymore since both ESXi/VCSA 6.5 and 6.7 are now EOL

While moving my ESX install from internal USB to SD card I realized I’d use the all-in-one instructions for further use. Here’s the short summary.

1. Install official 6.5 image from HPE
2. Enable swap on any datastore (required for image update)
3. Restart management services (services.sh restart)
4. Follow esxi-patches.v-front.de instructions to update to latest image
5. Downgrade faulty scsi drivers to 5.5.0 (link below)
6. Reboot

Driver downgrade guide

Check driver used, if it’s vmw_ahci you need to disable it otherwise datastores will not be accessible. Following command will do: esxcli system module set –enabled=false –module=vmw_ahci