Updating Firmware ESXI 6.7 DL380 GEN10

[jooji_marsh]

Hi,

Im trying to update the firmware on my 10Gb nics and its proving to be way over complicated. Im using SUM via an SPP which connects and uploads the firmware to ILO5. It then says i need to run iSUT or SUM on the host. Ive read the documentation for iSUT for VMware and i cant get my head round it. It saying i need to deploy a red hat linux box and and an SUT instance, HPE OneView etc.

Surely someone has updated their  firmware on a DL380 ESXi host without deploying HPE OneView etc. on their infrastructure?

[m_icha]

Hello jooji_marsh,

Smart update tools (SUT) are used in conjunction with HPE oneview and provide great flexibility in planning updates. There are several alternatives to upgrade firmware just only for the NIC. You may mount SPP ISO to iLO and boot from it or you can download the standalone component & upgrade the ESXi. If you want to apply this update only for a standalone server the second option might be the easier.

What is the NIC model of the server? You may locate that info from iLO web administrator under System Information > Network or from vCenter.

[MCSAP]

I've had similar frustration with the limited detail of HPE's documentation around the firmware upgrades through OneView for ESXi hosts.  It seems there are too many caveats and gaps in the instructions/requirements.  Gen 8 and 9 you need the separate RHEL server running the SUT service.  Gen 10s are supposed to be able to do firmware through OneView if you install the iSUT agent on your ESXi host; however, you still have to manually configure it. 

I've been battling with it for two days now myself trying to do the firmware update on a Gen10 through OneView.  No luck, and again the user guide is limited with detailed instructions.

HPE can do better!  

[ronissac]

Please refer to the below document for reference to install isut for esxi 

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-a00055043en_us&docLocale=en_US

Page 13

Ronny

[MCSAP]

Ronny,

Again, I appreciate the reply; however, page 13 is only one step or one part of this.  If using OneView, what specific settings or additional configuration is required for OneView Server Profiles to initiate/manage firmware updates for Gen 10 running ESXi? 

Also, manually installing the SUT package on each ESXi host is a very tedious task especailly when dealing with hundreds of DL380s.  Do you have reference for doing this via VMware Update Manager and/or PowerCLI?

[ronissac]

Install SUT on a server that is managed by a different HPE OneView instance.

Procedure

1. Launch SUM in GUI mode.

2. On the Baseline Library screen, add a baseline, and then map to the directory that contains the configured SUT components.

3. On the Nodes Library screen, add the nodes where user is installing SUT and assign the baseline with the SUT components.

4. On the Nodes Library screen, perform inventory on the nodes where user is installing SUT.

5. Install the components.

[MCSAP]

So please help me understand this all correctly.  In order to update firmware using HPE OneView on an ESXi 6.x host I need to...

1 - have OneView up and configured with server hardware and server profiles 

2 - have a separate installation of SUM (not clear why I need this)

3 - have a separate installation of SUT (for non Gen10)

4 - manually install the iSUT vib on each ESXi hosts (Gen10) - reboot - set configuration parameter

5 - have correct OneView Server Profile parameters set (no clear indication as to what these are)

6 - cross fingers and hope it works seamlessly

I have to say this DOES NOT scale for environments with 10s, dozens, or hundreds of servers to manage.  Having to manually touch each Gen10 ESXi host to configure iSUT is counter-productive to the automation/orchestration of a OneView implementation.  

Has ANYONE in the community had success with firmware upgrades on ESXI via OneView?!?!?!