vCenter

Normally updating a vCenter server appliance is as simple as accessing the VAMI interface on port :5480 and have the appliance download it's own update form the default update URL. And when that's not possible you can always just download the ISO-file and mount that on your vCenter server appliance.

The vSphere Client and vSphere Web Client in the vCenter Appliance both have a timeout of 120 minutes. NSX-T has a timeout of 30 minutes. When I am teaching VMware classes the client always has just timed out when I want to demonstrate something to my students and I then have to re-login. So therefor I always configure the timeout to 0 (no timeout) at the start of each class. It is documented here how to do that:

With the release of vSphere 6.5 VMware has introduced a new method for creating a backup of the vCenter Appliance. This method is available from the vCenter Appliance web management interface on port 5480 (https://applianceaddress:5480). In this article I will explain how to create a backup and what the restore procedure is.

With the release of vSphere 6.5 VMware has introduced a new method for creating a backup of the vCenter Appliance. This method is available from the vCenter Appliance web management interface on port 5480 (https://applianceaddress:5480).

Tip: Starting with vSphere 6.7 scheduling functionality has been added as a native feature in the appliance, eliminating the need for this workflow. It still applies to vSphere 6.5.

When using the vCenter 6 appliance as an Autodeploy server you can also use the appliance as your TFTP-server. But for that to work you need to start that service and enable access to it via a firewall rule.

Of course you also need to enable the Autodeploy service itself, which can be done from the vSphere Web Client under Home - Administration - Deployment - System Configuration - Services.