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Creating custom ESXi images using vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) UI and PowerCLI cmdlets for vSphere 8

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I have started to use vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) more and more, especially after upgrading to vSphere 8 as it will be the primary lifecycle management solution going forward for both vSphere image and configuration management.

The other reason for using vLCM is that vSphere Update Manager (VUM) baselines have also been deprecated in vSphere 8 and while you can still use it for now, it should not come as a surprise that VUM and its functionality will be removed in the future and all of its workflows including the use of vSphere Image Builder should also be transitioned over to using vLCM.

One of the most common and basic workflow for customers today is creating custom ESXi images (ISO or Offline Bundle) that includes additional ESXi drivers. Since vLCM is probably new to most folks (including myself), I wanted to share how you can create your own custom ESXi images using both the vLCM UI (which can be a bit non-intuitive) as well as the new PowerCLI cmdlets that was jus released today as part of PowerCLI 13.0 release that adds support for both vLCM and vSphere 8!

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Automated enablement of vSphere with Tanzu using vSphere Zones in vSphere 8

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vSphere Zones is just one of the the many exciting new Tanzu capabilities that is now part of vSphere 8. My buddy Cormac Hogan did a nice write-up on vSphere Zones, which I highly recommend folks check it out get more details.

This blog post will focus on using the new vCenter Server REST API to enable vSphere with Tanzu using the new vSphere Zones feature in vSphere 8.


For those interested in running a lean and minimal setup in their homelab, you can deploy a fully functional vSphere with Tanzu environment with just 32GB of memory and this is still applicable for vSphere 8!

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Using vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) API to patch group of ESXi hosts

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An interesting vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) question that has already come up a few times in the past two weeks is whether vLCM can remediate (patch/upgrade) a specific group of ESXi host(s)?

Today, there are two ways in which vLCM can remediate ESXi hosts within a vSphere Cluster. The first is to simply remediate all ESXi hosts within a vSphere Cluster using the Remediate All option.


If a user wishes to exclude specific ESXi host(s) from being remediated, then the only other option is to manually remediate each individual host. To do so, select an ESXi host from the list and then use the Remediate option in the Actions menu as shown in the screenshot below.


For a small environment, manual remediation might be okay for those willing to click through the vSphere UI but it is certainly less than ideal and you are also not taking advantage of the automation and orchestration that vLCM provides in the first place.

Luckily, there is a third option which is to use the vLCM REST API to specify the desired list of ESXi host(s) that want to patch/upgrade and best of all, this is fully automated!

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