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Vmware Host returns esxupdate error code:15 – Check update manager log

I tried to update a VMware host through update manager and I got the below error through stage and remediation.

VMware indicates that:

This issue occurs if the /locker/ folder contains too many files aside from the /locker/packages (or /store/packages) folder. Remediation cannot happen as the disk does not have enough space.

/locker partition is the local Datastore of the host and in my case did not contain a lot of data except from the directory of packages.

The solution for this error was to remediate less updates and not all of them once. For example I could remediate 28 patches, but I performed that in two waves 14 on each iteration.

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2030665

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Update standalone ESXi host with esxcli

There are multiple ways available to patch a VMware Infrastructure. Two of the very common ones are through Update Manager or esxcli.

Update Manager enables centralized, automated patch and version management for VMware vSphere and offers support for VMware ESXi hosts, and virtual machines. Unfortunately it is available only on vCenter deployments and you cannot use it on standalone hosts.

When you need to update a standalone host you can follow the procedure described below.

In my case I wanted to patch an ESXi host from 6.7 Build 8941472 to 6.7 Build 9484548.

First you download the patch definitions from VMware site. In my case I needed to download the below bundle package:

Then, the package should be uploaded to the local or any available datastore so that host can access it. Also ssh should be enabled so that one can connect on the host with root account.

file upload can be performed from the available esx host GUI

change directory and find the location of the file

Lastly execute the below command, and reboot the host

esxcli software vib update --depot filePath

The version available after the reboot, should be the new one