diff -u b/core/modules/system/src/Controller/DbUpdateController.php b/core/modules/system/src/Controller/DbUpdateController.php
--- b/core/modules/system/src/Controller/DbUpdateController.php
+++ b/core/modules/system/src/Controller/DbUpdateController.php
@@ -209,38 +209,6 @@
   }
 
   /**
-   * Renders a list of available entity schema updates.
-   *
-   * @return array
-   *   A render array.
-   */
-  function entitySchema() {
-    $build = array('#title' => $this->t('Drupal entity schema updates'));
-
-    // Build a summary of the entity schema changes.
-    $summary = \Drupal::service('entity.schema.manager')->getChangeSummary();
-    if ($summary) {
-      $entity_manager = $this->entityManager();
-      foreach ($summary as $entity_type_id => $items) {
-        $definition = $entity_manager->getDefinition($entity_type_id);
-        $build['summary'][$entity_type_id] = array(
-          '#type' => 'details',
-          '#title' => $definition->getLabel(),
-        );
-        $build['summary'][$entity_type_id]['changes'] = array(
-          '#theme' => 'item_list',
-          '#items' => $items,
-        );
-      }
-    }
-    else {
-      $build['summary'] = array('#markup' => $this->t('No entity schema changes available.'));
-    }
-
-    return $build;
-  }
-
-  /**
    * Renders a list of available database updates.
    *
    * @return array
@@ -317,11 +285,21 @@
       drupal_set_message($this->t('Some of the pending updates cannot be applied because their dependencies were not met.'), 'warning');
     }
 
-    // If there are entity schema updates, display their information.
-    // @todo Improve UX.
+    // If there are entity schema updates, display their summary.
     if (\Drupal::service('entity.schema.manager')->hasChanges()) {
-      $build['start']['entity_schema'] = $this->entitySchema();
-      $count += count(\Drupal::service('entity.schema.manager')->getChangeSummary());
+      $entity_build = array();
+      $summary = \Drupal::service('entity.schema.manager')->getChangeSummary();
+      foreach ($summary as $entity_type_id => $items) {
+        $entity_update_key = 'entity_type_updates_' . $entity_type_id;
+        $entity_build[$entity_update_key] = array(
+          '#theme' => 'item_list',
+          '#items' => $items,
+          '#title' => $entity_type_id . ' entity type',
+        );
+        $count++;
+      }
+      // Display these above the module updates, since they will be run first.
+      $build['start'] = $entity_build + $build['start'];
     }
 
     if (empty($count)) {
@@ -540,16 +518,17 @@
       $this->state->set('system.maintenance_mode', TRUE);
     }
 
+    $operations = array();
+
     // First of all perform entity schema updates, if needed, so that subsequent
     // updates work with a correct entity schema.
-    // @todo Incorporate this as a batch operation.
     if (\Drupal::service('entity.schema.manager')->hasChanges()) {
-      \Drupal::service('entity.schema.manager')->applyChanges();
+      $operations[] = array('update_entity_schema', array('system', '0 - Update entity schema'));
     }
 
-    $start = $this->getModuleUpdates();
     // Resolve any update dependencies to determine the actual updates that will
     // be run and the order they will be run in.
+    $start = $this->getModuleUpdates();
     $updates = update_resolve_dependencies($start);
 
     // Store the dependencies for each update function in an array which the
@@ -561,7 +540,7 @@
       $dependency_map[$function] = !empty($update['reverse_paths']) ? array_keys($update['reverse_paths']) : array();
     }
 
-    $operations = array();
+    // Determine updates to be performed.
     foreach ($updates as $update) {
       if ($update['allowed']) {
         // Set the installed version of each module so updates will start at the
only in patch2:
unchanged:
--- a/core/includes/update.inc
+++ b/core/includes/update.inc
@@ -10,14 +10,8 @@
 
 use Drupal\Component\Graph\Graph;
 use Drupal\Component\Utility\String;
-use Drupal\Core\Config\FileStorage;
-use Drupal\Core\Config\ConfigException;
-use Drupal\Core\DrupalKernel;
-use Drupal\Core\Page\DefaultHtmlPageRenderer;
+use Drupal\Core\Entity\EntityStorageException;
 use Drupal\Core\Utility\Error;
-use Drupal\Component\Uuid\Uuid;
-use Drupal\Component\Utility\NestedArray;
-use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
 
 /**
  * Disables any extensions that are incompatible with the current core version.
@@ -258,6 +252,33 @@ function update_do_one($module, $number, $dependency_map, &$context) {
 }
 
 /**
+ * Performs entity schema updates.
+ *
+ * @param $module
+ *   The module whose update will be run.
+ * @param $number
+ *   The update number to run.
+ * @param $context
+ *   The batch context array.
+ */
+function update_entity_schema($module, $number, &$context) {
+  try {
+    \Drupal::service('entity.schema.manager')->applyChanges();
+  }
+  catch (EntityStorageException $e) {
+    watchdog_exception('update', $e);
+    $variables = Error::decodeException($e);
+    unset($variables['backtrace']);
+    // The exception message is run through
+    // \Drupal\Component\Utility\String::checkPlain() by
+    // \Drupal\Core\Utility\Error::decodeException().
+    $ret['#abort'] = array('success' => FALSE, 'query' => t('%type: !message in %function (line %line of %file).', $variables));
+    $context['results'][$module][$number] = $ret;
+    $context['results']['#abort'][] = 'update_entity_schema';
+  }
+}
+
+/**
  * Returns a list of all the pending database updates.
  *
  * @return