An image of a virtualization software and firmware in a plurality of hosts are upgraded by performing the steps of: in response to a user input, generating a software specification that specifies a desired state of the virtualization software and a desired state of the firmware; based on the software specification, preparing a desired image of the virtualization software that includes software components of a desired version of the firmware; and from a virtual machine management server that is programmed to deploy virtual machines in the hosts, coordinating an upgrade to the desired image of the virtualization software and the desired version of the firmware in the hosts by (1) instructing a hardware support manager to upgrade the hosts to the desired version of the firmware, and (2) instructing each of the hosts to upgrade to the desired image of the virtualization software.