If you haven't implemented VMware's Update Manager for patching your ESX servers, you should check out this Altiris Juice member's robust set of scripts to do the patching via the Deployment console. 

Use the ESX-100xxxx patch number as the job name.

1. Check to see if the patch is installed

#Check to see if this patch is already installed
#!/bin/sh
esxupdate query | grep %JOBNAME%

Set this job to STOP on a "Success" (exit code zero), and Continue (sucessfully) on exit code 1.

grep will return exit code 0 if the text is found (ie patch is installed), 1 if it is not.

 

The other steps are below, but you need to go to Altiris Juice to grab the scripts!

2. Check that the host is in maintenance mode

3. Create patch directory

4. Download Patch

5. Verify MD5 hash

6. Decompress and install patch

7. Clean up after install

Grab the other set of 6 scripts, here, at the Altiris Juice site.