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.