A baseline is a list of patches that can be used to check the ESXi hosts or virtual appliances for compliance. By default, there are two sets of baselines that are predefined:
Critical host patches (dynamic)
Non-critical host patches (dynamic)
The other baselines are:
VMware tools upgrade to match host (dynamic)
VM hardware upgrade to match host (dynamic)
VA upgrade to latest (dynamic)
You can manually create a new custom baseline, which can be used to check the ESXi hosts for compliance.
The following procedure will guide you through the steps required to create a baseline:
Connect to the vCenter Server as an administrator, using the vSphere Client.
Go to Home | Update Manager.
Navigate to the Baselines and Groups tab, select the Hosts view and click on Create.
Enter a name for the baseline and select the Baseline Type. The selections available are:
Host Patch, Host Extension and Host Upgrade
VA Upgrade
Select the baseline type to be either Fixed or Dynamic and click...