Upgrade NUC10i7FNH to ESXi 7

Note: If you’re going to run EVE-NG on this host, then do not upgrade to ESXi 7.0

Earlier this year, I wrote an article about my new ESXi host, the Intel NUC 10 – Frost Canyon. The article covered how to install VMware ESXi 6.7 on the NUC. Since VMware released the new ESXi version, I decided to upgrade my Frost Canyon NUC to ESXi 7.0. This guide describes how to upgrade NUC107iFNH to ESXi 7.

Software upgrade process

Usually, I use the CLI to upgrade my ESXi hosts to a newer version. This time around, it didn’t work without some changes to my standard process. It is because I’m using the non-native NIC driver for the Intel I219-V. You can see the error I received, as shown below.

[root@esxi03:~] esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e true -r httpClient
[root@esxi03:~] esxcli software profile update -p ESXi-7.0.0-15843807-standard -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml
 [HardwareError]
 Hardware precheck of profile ESXi-7.0.0-15843807-standard failed with errors: 
 Please refer to the log file for more details.
[root@esxi03:~] esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e false -r httpClient

Since ESXi 7.0 still doesn’t use the updated ne1000 driver, you’ll have to create a customized offline bundle to upgrade the Intel 10th generation NUC (Frost Canyon) from ESXi 6.7 to 7.0.

To create a custom offline bundle, you’ll need to download and install some software. In this article, I used a Windows 10 VM with VMware PowerCLI, ESXi-Customizer-PS, and ne1000 driver downloaded and installed.

Creating a custom ESXi 7 offline bundle

Once you’ve completed the software download and install, then it is time to create the custom ESXi 7.0 offline bundle. Follow all the steps in this section to successfully create the file.

Step 1 – Run Windows PowerShell

To run the software, click the Start Menu and look for Windows PowerShell. Once located, right-click it and click the Run as administrator. Once PowerShell window is up, issue the command, as shown below. This command assumes that you already have an ESXi folder.

PS C:\Windows\System32> cd ~\Desktop\ESXi

Step 2 – Create a ZIP file

Now, you are ready to create a custom ESXi offline bundle file. To create the ZIP file, you need to issue the commands, as shown below. This step assumes that the ne1000 driver is in the ESXi folder.

PS C:\Users\Andrew\Desktop\ESXi> Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
PS C:\Users\Andrew\Desktop\ESXi> Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process -ExecutionPolicy Bypass
PS C:\Users\Andrew\Desktop\ESXi> .\ESXi-Customizer-PS.ps1 -v70 -pkgDir .\ -ozip

Note: Generating the offline bundle file may take a while. Just be patient. Eventually, you will see a file in ESXi folder with a name of ESXi-7.0.0-15843807-standard-customized.zip.

Upgrading from ESXi 6.7 to 7.0

After creating the offline bundle file, you must upload the ZIP file to your ESXi datastore. Once completed, you’re going to issue the command below.

[root@esxi03:~] esxcli software profile update -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/ESXi-7.0.0-15843807-standard-customized.zip -p ESXi-7.0.0-15843807-standard-customized

When the process is complete, you need to reboot your NUC, as shown below.

[root@esxi03:~] reboot

Verification

When the ESXi host is fully booted up, you can now check the version. You can do this via CLI or Web UI.

[root@esxi03:~] esxcli system version get
   Product: VMware ESXi
   Version: 7.0.0
   Build: Releasebuild-15843807
   Update: 0
   Patch: 0

Final Thoughts

I already had a lot of hoops to jump through in getting ESXi to work on Intel NUC, so this doesn’t bother me that much. Though, I, for sure, want it to be a simple process. I am still hopeful that VMware will eventually add the updated ne1000 driver to newer versions.

You might like to read

VMware ESXi Home Lab – Intel NUC 10 (Frost Canyon)

Disclosure

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