Patching HPE VMware custom images

[sam bell]

Dear all,

we are currently running a VMware cluster based on 3x ProLiant DL380Gen8 and 1x DL380 Gen9 that have been installed with the HPE VMware ESXi 6.5 custom images for Pre-Gen9 and Gen9-Plus.

The current ESXi 6.5 build of these images is 8294253. The most recent build from VMware for ESXi 6.5 is 9298722.

Can anyone tell me about what is the correct way to patch those hosts to the most recent build of ESXi? Can I just use vSphere Update Manager and use the patches provided by the VMware VUM repository?

I'm not quite sure with this, because the document SPP HPE Custom Image vibsdepot mapping for Pre-Gen9 states that "Software update for servers running VMware vSphere 6.5 U2 must be done using the HPE Custom Image or vibsdepot":

http://vibsdepot.hpe.com/mapping/SPP-HPE_Custom-Image-vibsdepot-mapping-pre-Gen9.pdf

I have also read the document Deploying and updating VMware vSphere on HPE ProLiant servers:

 https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA4-7994ENW.pdf

Based on the document I have added the HPE VIB repository to Update Manager. This raises another question: After creating a basline with HPE ESXi 6.5 content, Update Manager shows the following for my freshly installed ESXi 6.5 hosts:

So it seems that the ESXi Management Bundle verison 2.6.2-2 is installed - which is from January 2017. Can this be correct since the custom image that was used for installation of ESXi 6.5 was released May 2018? I assume that a custom image relased in May 2018 should contain a more recent Management Bundle.

/edit: Regarding the second part: It indeed seems the case that the current HP ESXi 6.5 custom image from May 2018 does not include the most recent ESXi Management and Utilities Bundle. I have manually compared the versions between our ProLiant Gen9 and ProLiant Gen8 and the Gen9 server (that was installed with the Gen9+ custom image) already includes the latest Management Bundle. This is also reflected by vSphere Update Manager when scanning for updates.

Thanks
Michael

[RaviTyagi]

Hello Michael,

Greetings !

Please find below the response to your question .

Can anyone tell me about what is the correct way to patch those hosts to the most recent build of ESXi? Can I just use vSphere Update Manager and use the patches provided by the VMware VUM repository? You can patch the host using update Manager . Since the patch is released by VMware inc so update Manager is the best possible way to Patch the host .

For the second question, You will be required to Raise a Support case with HPE's Hardware Team.

Thank you 

I am an HPE Employee

RRT