Get the patches from VMWare at http://www.vmware.com/patchmgr/findPatch.portal

There a some strange Java things going on there, but you should be able to search for ESXi 5.0.0. I believe there are 7 or 8 patches available. Not sure about this. I got them all and installed them – but they could be accumulative. Maybe the latest is enough? Not sure. If you download and install all of them, your host will be updated perfectly, but I will take you a couple of hours. You should of course be careful of the order you apply the patches … Something like this (and you will need to apply them in the opposite order)

 

ESXi500-201109001 
ESXi500-201111001
ESXi500-201112001
update-from-esxi5.0-5.0_update01
ESXi500-201204001
ESXi500-201205001
ESXi500-201206001
ESXi500-201207001

A lot of work. Move the files too somewhere on the host (you can remove them when finish) A local datastore would be fine. This fellow do some very nice things with a network store: http://www.kasraeian.com/step-by-step-visual-guide/esxi-5-0-manual-update-guide/#comment-2404

I just created a directory (named 'update') on my datastore1. Like /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/update/

Enable SSH on the host. Configuration -> Security Profile. Enable SHH service. No need to tamper with the firewall – should be okay. The host need to be in 'Maintenance Mode'.

After connecting to the host check if things are there you thing they are:

ls -l /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/update/

Now you need to get the profile name of each patch:

esxcli software sources profile list -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/update/ESXi500-201111001.zip

Name                             Vendor        Acceptance Level

-------------------------------  ------------  ----------------

ESXi-5.0.0-20111104001-no-tools  VMware, Inc.  PartnerSupported
ESXi-5.0.0-20111104001-standard  VMware, Inc.  PartnerSupported

You need the name in (ESXi-5.0.0-20111104001-standard). And now you can apply the patch:

esxcli software profile update -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/update/ESXi500-201111001.zip -p ESXi-5.0.0-20111104001-standard

After each applied patch the host will properly need to be rebooted. Something like: 'Message: The update completed successfully ….' and 'Reboot Required: true' 

1. ESXi500-201109001ESXi-5.0.0-20110904001-standard
2. ESXi500-201111001ESXi-5.0.0-20111104001-standard
3. ESXi500-201112001ESXi-5.0.0-20111204001-standard
4. update-from-esxi5.0-5.0_update01.zipESXi-5.0.0-20120302001-standard
5. ESXi500-201204001.zipESXi-5.0.0-20110904001-standard
6. ESXi500-201205001.zipESXi-5.0.0-20120504001-standard
7. ESXi500-201206001.zipESXi-5.0.0-20120604001-standard
8. ESXi500-201207001.zipESXi-5.0.0-20120704001-standard