An administrator is upgrading an ESXi host from 5.5 to 6.0 and runs the following command: esxcli software vib list --rebooting-image What does this command show?

ESXi maintains two boot banks: the currently running image and a staged alternate image. The --rebooting-image flag queries the alternate boot bank and lists the VIBs that will become the active running set once the host reboots, allowing administrators to verify pending changes before committing to a reboot.

VIBs that require a reboot to take effect are identified by the reboot-required flag set during installation, not by the --rebooting-image option, which shows the full VIB inventory of the pending boot image.

The currently active boot image VIBs are listed by running esxcli software vib list without any image flag; --rebooting-image specifically targets the alternate staged boot bank.

Third-party VIB classification is determined by the acceptance level attribute (CommunitySupported or PartnerSupported) and is unrelated to the --rebooting-image flag.