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When you try to install a VMware ESXi Update using esxcli, the upgrade fails with the following error message:

"[Errno 28] No space left on device"

The problem is caused by ESXi not having enough free space available to extract the installation packages. This article explains how to solve the issue by enabling swapping to a Datastore.

GUI Method

You do not need a vCenter to enable host swapping. It can be done from the ESXi Host Client.

1. Open ESXi UI (https://[ESXi-IP-Address]/ui/)
2. Navigate to Host > Manage > System > Swap
3. Click Edit settings
4. Enable Swapping and select a datastore (ds1 in that example)
   
5. Click Save
6. Changes are active immediately, there is no need to reboot the host.

CLI Method

You can also activate Datastore Swapping with the esxcli sched swap system command:

# esxcli sched swap system set -n ds1 -d y
# esxcli sched swap system get
   Datastore Active: true
   Datastore Enabled: true
   Datastore Name: ds1
   Datastore Order: 1
   Hostcache Active: false
   Hostcache Enabled: true
   Hostcache Order: 0
   Hostlocalswap Active: false
   Hostlocalswap Enabled: true
   Hostlocalswap Order: 2