ESXi upgrade generates Dependency Errors

I was patching ESXi hosts at work (again!) and ran into an issue with dependencies.

Update Manager generated an error when trying to patch ESXi 6.5, so I tried updating from the CLI:

[root@server00:~] esxcli software vib update -d "/vmfs/volumes/ecd3afaf-295422fc/VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.5.0.update03-20502893.x86_64-DellEMC_Customized-A10.zip" --dry-run

[DependencyError]
VIB Brocade_bootbank_scsi-bfa_3.1.0.0-1OEM.500.0.0.472560 requires vmkapi_2_0_0_0, but the requirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile.
VIB Brocade_bootbank_net-bna_3.1.0.0-1OEM.500.0.0.472560 requires com.vmware.driverAPI-9.2.0.0, but the requirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile.
VIB Brocade_bootbank_net-bna_3.1.0.0-1OEM.500.0.0.472560 requires vmkapi_2_0_0_0, but the requirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile.
VIB Brocade_bootbank_scsi-bfa_3.1.0.0-1OEM.500.0.0.472560 requires com.vmware.driverAPI-9.2.0.0, but the requirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile.
Please refer to the log file for more details.
[root@server00:~]

One server was patched by downloading the DellEMC-ESXi-6.5U3-20502893-A10.iso image to the Update Manager and creating a baseline from it. I then attached it to the host and let it Remediate.

Another server didn’t upgrade with the custom baseline I created, so I tried to remove the dependencies via. CLI:

[root@server00:~] esxcli software vib list | grep -i brocade
net-bna                        3.1.0.0-1OEM.500.0.0.472560           Brocade   VMwareCertified   2014-02-19
scsi-bfa                       3.1.0.0-1OEM.500.0.0.472560           Brocade   VMwareCertified   2014-02-19
 
[root@server00:~] esxcli software vib remove -n net-bna
[DependencyError]
VIB Brocade_bootbank_scsi-bfa_3.1.0.0-1OEM.500.0.0.472560 requires com.vmware.driverAPI-9.2.0.0, but the requirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile.
VIB Brocade_bootbank_scsi-bfa_3.1.0.0-1OEM.500.0.0.472560 requires vmkapi_2_0_0_0, but the requirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile.
Please refer to the log file for more details.
[root@server00:~] esxcli software vib remove -n scsi-bfa
[DependencyError]
VIB Brocade_bootbank_net-bna_3.1.0.0-1OEM.500.0.0.472560 requires com.vmware.driverAPI-9.2.0.0, but the requirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile.
VIB Brocade_bootbank_net-bna_3.1.0.0-1OEM.500.0.0.472560 requires vmkapi_2_0_0_0, but the requirement cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile.
Please refer to the log file for more details.

As the error above shows, that didn’t work, because there were sub-requirements that were not met.

I finally managed to apply the update via. CLI by instructing ESXi that it was okay to remove VIBs not associated with the profile being installed: esxcli software profile install -p DellEMC-ESXi-6.5U3-14320405-A03 -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore/ISO/VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.5.0.update03-14320405.x86_64-DellEMC_Customized-A03.zip --ok-to-remove