Managing Hosts

You can use host management commands to stop, reboot
ESXi
hosts, enter and exit maintenance mode, and manage modules. You can also manage components, base images, add-ons, and host updates.
vSphere 7.0 introduces components, base images, and add-ons. A component is an installation packaging element. One component might contain multiple VIBs. The component has a version number that is separate from the version numbers of any VIBs it contains, though it might be the same. Each VIB in a component can contain a device driver, a CIM module, or an application for communicating between the two. Components simplify the packaging and installation of installable items on
ESXi
. The base image is an
ESXi
image that VMware provides with every release of
ESXi
. The base image is a collection of components that is complete and can boot up a server. Base images have a user-readable name and a unique version that is updated with every major or minor release of
ESXi
. The add-on is a collection of components that does not represent a complete, bootable image. You cannot use vendor add-ons on their own. To customize an
ESXi
release, you must add a vendor add-on to an
ESXi
base image.
For information on updating
ESXi
hosts with the
esxcli software
command and on changing the host acceptance level to match the level of a VIB that you might want to use for an update, see the
VMware ESXi Upgrade
document.