Care & Feeding of HP-ESXi...

[evpretorious]

Hello, All:

I've inherited a small collection of HP Proliant servers running a variety of ESXi versions...

• ESXi-6.0.0-20160302001-Standard
• ESXi-6.0.0-20160302001-Standard (Updated)
• HP-ESXi-6.0.0-iso-600.9.3.30.2
• ESXi-5.5.0-20140302001-Standard (Updated)
• HP-ESXi-5.5.0-Update2-iso-5.77.3

...that all need to be standardized and updated but the available HP documentation isn't very clear about how to patch, update, or upgrade even the HP custom images.

FIRST: Converting to HP-ESXi...

How can I safely convert the systems over to the HP custom images? Should I find the HP-ESXi off-line bundle that is closest to the currently-installed, NON-HP version and use that? Or should I convert-by-installation (i.e., find the version of HP-ESXi that is closest to the currently-installed, NON-HP version of ESXi and install that over the currently-installed version)?

SECOND: Upgrading to HP-6.5.0...

Should these systems be updated using the latest off-line bundles available from vibsdepot.hpe.com before being upgraded to the latest version of HP-ESXi? Or can I upgrade-by-installation (i.e., install the latest version of HP-ESXi over the currently-installed version of ESXi)?

THIRD: Maintaining HP-ESXi-6.5.0...

After the systems are all running a common version of HP-ESXi (i.e., VMware-ESXi-6.5.0-4564106-HPE-650.9.6.0.28-Nov2016): Should I plan to keep these systems current by applying off-line UpdateX bundles from vibsdepot.hpe.com‌ (e.g., VMware-ESXi-6.0.0-Update2-3620759-HPE-600.9.6.0.49-Oct2016-depot.zip)? Or is there a more direct route to receiving the lastest updates from VMware?

Message was edited by: Eric Pretorious

[evpretorious]

The scope has been modified a bit but the objective is still the same:

• Convert all of the NON-HP ESXi installations to HP-ESXi.
• Upgrade all of installations to the latest version of ESXi-6.0.0

I figured that the most difficult conversion would be from ESXi-5.5.0-20140302001-Standard to HP-ESXi-6.0.0 so I installed a fresh copy of ESXi-5.5.0 (using the VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.5.0-1331820.x86_64.iso image) onto a spare Proliant host system; created a handful of guests, and then; upgraded the host to VMware-ESXi-6.0.0-Update2-3620759-HPE-600.9.6.0.49-Oct2016 by way of upgrading-by-installation.

AFAICT: The upgrade did hit a small snag but - over all - it was successful! (In order to add the guests to the inventory I did have to browse the directly-attached datastore [where the hosts' files were stored], identify the guests that needed to be added, and manually add each guest but that's entirely within the margins of Success!)

I'm still hoping for an answer about patching HP-ESXi-6.0.0 but this component of the project seems to be handled.  :smileycool:

[evpretorious]

I'm still hoping for an answer about patching HP-ESXi-6.0.0...

e.g., If I'm to use the patches issued by VMware, should I apply all four patches issued for ESXi-6.0.0 after Update #2 was issued (update-from-esxi6.0-6.0_update02,

03/15/2016)? i.e.,

1. ESXi600-201605001,
2. ESXi600-201608001,
3. ESXi600-201610001, and
4. ESXi600-201611001

I've been applying patches manually (i.e., from the CLI) using the esxcli software vib install --d /vmfs/volumes/datastore/XXX.zip command. Can I use this method with these patch files?

[evpretorious]

Is there some place more appropriate for HP-related questions? :smileyconfused:

[evpretorious]

e.g., If I'm to use the patches issued by VMware...

In Chapter 7 of the HPE publication "HPE VMware ESXi and vSphere 5.x, 6.x and Updates Getting Started Guide" HPE advises...

Updates and patches for VMware ESXi and vSphere are provided and delivered by VMware. These updates and patches include the latest ESXi and vSphere software from VMware. Updates to HPE value-add components are provided and delivered by HPE and are available from the HPE Online Depot at: http://vibsdepot.hpe.com.

Can anyone here shed some more light on this vague statement? i.e., Should I interpret the first-half of the statement to mean that the patches available from VMware can/should be used to patch HPE-ESXi?

[evpretorious]

Can anyone here shed some more light on this vague statement?

Really - Nobody can offer any insight into this question?! I'm surprised! There's got to be someone here that has experience with the HPE customized ESXi image...  :smileyshocked:

[a_p_]

Afaik HPE provides its custom images for GA and Update builds, and you can apply patches for the provided builds, i.e. with the custom ESXi 6.0 Update 1 image running, you can apply patches which are provided for Update 1. Once Update 2 becomes available, you will have to apply the custom Update 2 profile prior to installing newer patches.

What I usually do, is to check the contents of the patches, to find out what's going to be updated (you can either check out https://vibmatrix.v-front.de/ for changes, or run the esxcli software ... command with the --dry-run option), prior to installing them.

André

[evpretorious]

Thank you, a.p.! :smileyhappy: