KB 2008939sums it up nicely, but if you get an error like this while manually adding patched to an ESXi 5.x host:
/ # esxcli software vib install -d ./ESXi510-201210001.zip
[MetadataDownloadError]
Could not download from depot at zip:/var/log/vmware/ESXi510-201210001.zip?index.xml, skipping ((‘zip:/var/log/vmware/ESXi510-201210001.zip?index.xml’, ”, “Error extracting index.xml from /var/log/vmware/ESXi510-201210001.zip: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: ‘/var/log/vmware/ESXi510-201210001.zip'”))
url = zip:/var/log/vmware/ESXi510-201210001.zip?index.xml
Please refer to the log file for more details.
Note that as plainly stated in the KB – the entire directory needs to be included in the command:
/ # esxcli software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/519e70b3-9d0f6b70-8e0f-0050560106fe/Patch/ESXi510-201210001.zip
Installation Result
Message: The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective.
Reboot Required: true
