Updating Dell 12G BIOS from the Dell BIOS update utility.

Updating BIOS firmware on Dell servers with ESXi can be tricky. If you are thinking this guy needs to meet the life-cycle controller, your wrong. The Life-cycle controller looks at an old Dell repository.  For Example, at the time of writing I know Dell have released BIOS 2.1.2 it's available from the support.euro.dell.com website but the Life-cycle controller shows no new updates. With a Windows OpSys you can just download the .EXE updater and reboot. With ESXi this is not available.

Here is a solution:

Download the .efi file from the support website and copy it to the root of a USB stick.

I use the iDRAC to perform the update, but you insert the USB stick directly into the server and do this from the server console.
Launch the iDRAC console and click the virtual media menu, select the USB stick, in the example below, E drive.

During boot press F11 for the BIO boot manager. Once in the boot manager select. System Utilities.

At the next screen select BIO file explorer.

You then need to locate the device with the .efi file. This should be the virtual floppy drive.

After the file explorer has discovered the efi file you need to select it.

Confirm the firmware upgrade and select Continue BIOS Update.

The BIOS update is executed as you can see below.

This is a great way to update the BIOS from the comfort of your chair.