Need help with QLE220 HBAs urgently

[zaspam]

Hi all.

I have 3 Dell R810 servers with QLE220 HBAs.

The problem with the HBAs is that the ESXi 5.1 cannot recognize them.

The first thing you'll answer is that those HBAs are not officially on the HCL, and I'm aware of that.

However my servers are only 2 years old  and I'm guessing I'm not the only one with the problem.

Dell says that they oficially support ESXi 5.1 on this type of server ,and yes, in my install i have used the dell customized CD/DVD.

However there are no drivers for those HBAs on that CD/DVD.

I have looked all over in the forii and discussion groups all over the Internets, and thus far I have found the following links mildly helpful:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/328090

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=DT-ESXi5X-QLOGIC-qla2xxx-9345401vmw&productId=229#product_downloads

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/168414

and this is where I downloaded the driver bundle for ESi 5.x from Qlogic:

http://driverdownloads.qlogic.com/QLogicDriverDownloads_UI/SearchByProduct.aspx?ProductCategory=39&Product=937&Os=167

I installed it using Update Manager and it installed allright, however there was no mention of the driver for my HBAs.

I then cruised the Internets for a different solution. And found the following solution:

http://andysworld.org.uk/2011/09/20/tweaking-esxi-50-adding-un-supported-hardware-to-vmware-vsphere-esxi-50-adding-a-qle-220-to-esxi-50/

which applies to ESXi 5.0 and even though it seems like a hack, it did make sense.

However in the process I seem to have hit an obtacle in that when trying to run the

tar -xvf scsi-qla.tgz (i.e. scsi_qla.v00)

I get a :

tar: invalid tar magic

error message.

I sense that the solution lies somewhere in this direction, however I'm baffled by this error.

I understand that VMware may have implemented a driver signing option in 5.1 to prevent tampering or rooting, however I must stress that

I'm really desperate on this.

Please don't tell me go sort it out with Dell or the guys that sold you the servers.

Thanks in advance.

[MKguy]

What's the exact HBA model name? "QLE220" may be the chip name by qlogic but not the real model name of a dell branded HBA, which might is listed on the HCL after all.

However in the process I seem to have hit an obtacle in that when trying to run the

tar -xvf scsi-qla.tgz (i.e. scsi_qla.v00)

I get a :

tar: invalid tar magic

error message.

If it's a .tgz file (gzipped tar archive) then you need to specify that with the 'z' switch of the 'tar' command.

I.e. run:

tar -zxvf scsi-qla.tgz

(You can also use tools like 7zip to extract gzip/tar archives)

[zaspam]

Hi, thank you for the quick reply!

So the lspci -v command identifies the 2 devices as:

00:06:00.0 Fibre Channel Serial bus controller: QLogic Corp SP232-based 4Gb Fibre Channel to PCI Express HBA
         Class 0c04: 1077:5432

00:08:00.0 Fibre Channel Serial bus controller: QLogic Corp SP232-based 4Gb Fibre Channel to PCI Express HBA
         Class 0c04: 1077:5432

I know them to be QLE220 HBAs as these were detected as such in my ESXi 4.1 installation and are declared as such by Dell in the product specification.

Whatever it may me I still cannot add the identifier 5432 to the device map, as even with the -z parameter the error remains identical:

/tmp/tweak # tar -zxvf scsi_qla.tgz
tar: invalid tar magic

I did try and download (psftp) it to my desktop pc and used 7zip to extract the tarball and then used winrar (latest versions) to extract the data out of the tar file, ony to end up in an error

the archive is corrupt.

Best regards

[MKguy]

Actually, scratch that with the tar command. I just found out the hard way that this not a standard tar format (seriously VMware?):

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/217233

So you need a step in between that converts the VMware proprietary tar archive to a standard tar archive with the vmtar tool.

This procedure for editing the mapping file should work, tested this on a 5.1 host with another qlogic bundle:

cd /tmp/

cp /bootbank/scsi_qla.v00 /tmp/scsi_qla.gz

gunzip scsi_qla.gz

vmtar -x scsi_qla -o scsi_qla.tar

mkdir /tmp/qla

tar xvf scsi_qla.tar -C /tmp/qla/
etc/
etc/vmware/
etc/vmware/driver.map.d/
etc/vmware/driver.map.d/qla4xxx.map
usr/
usr/lib/
usr/lib/vmware/
usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/
usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/qla4xxx
usr/share/
usr/share/hwdata/
usr/share/hwdata/driver.pciids.d/
usr/share/hwdata/driver.pciids.d/qla4xxx.ids

This extracts all files to /tmp/qla/, edit them there and then re-pack the archive, replacing the bootbank file:

cd /tmp/qla

tar -cf scsi_qla.tar ./*

vmtar -c scsi_qla.tar -o scsi_qla

gzip scsi_qla

mv scsi_qla.gz scsi_qla.v00

cp scsi_qla.v00 /bootbank/scsi_qla.v00

Finally reboot.

[zaspam]

Hi, thank you again for a great answer.

Everything you suggested worked just as you said and it did unpack and repack correctly i.e. i got the file.

Once rebooted the system went into a purple screen (of agony) with the following error:

The system has found a problem on yourt machine and cannot continue
Could not load multiboot modules: Boot image is corrupted

It may  be that the driver is really not meant for my card (even though I'm still inclined to believe that there is a chance of me getting the HBAs to work),

or I screwed up something in the process. I did a recovery on the server and now it's back to square 1.

In the process I saw that the file was I was looking for (qla2xxx.map) was actually stored in the scsi_qla.v01 so i eventually unpacked and repacked that one.

None the less I have noticed that there is also a file named usr/share/hwdata/driver.pciids.d/qla4xxx.ids which I suspect to hold also a list of IDs that probably have to match the list in qla2xxx.map.

I'll give it a shot!

I'm marking your response as helpful.

Thanks again.

[zaspam]

Another thing!

Once the purple screen hits, if I list the vmkernel log, it stops right after loading scsi_qla.v01 (the file that we replaced) and states that:

WARNING: VisorFSTar: 968 : Missing directory . for ./etc

RamDisk: 101: Invalid tar image : Boot image is corrupted(0xbad00ce)

Thus obviously pointing to the very same file that we changed.

Is it possible that we made a mistake while packing?

The error points me to thinking that there is a synactical error somewhere but I'm not so clearheaded now to figure it out.

Thanks again.

[MKguy]

Oh yea, I actually made the same mistake as someone in the other thread there. Try running this when re-creating the tar archive:

cd /tmp/qla

tar -cf scsi_qla.tar *

vmtar -c scsi_qla.tar -o scsi_qla

The original "./*" should have been responsible for this issue.

Listing the files inside the archive should now look like this:

# cat scsi_qla.tar | tar tv
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2013-01-11 16:31:13 etc/
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2013-01-11 16:31:13 etc/vmware/
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2013-01-11 16:31:13 etc/vmware/driver.map.d/
-rw-r--r-- root/root       592 2013-01-11 16:31:53 etc/vmware/driver.map.d/qla2xxx.map
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2013-01-11 16:31:13 usr/
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2013-01-11 16:31:13 usr/lib/
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2013-01-11 16:31:13 usr/lib/vmware/
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2013-01-11 16:31:13 usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/
-rw-r--r-- root/root   1644648 2012-02-08 06:54:21 usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/qla2xxx
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2013-01-11 16:31:13 usr/share/
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2013-01-11 16:31:13 usr/share/hwdata/
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2013-01-11 16:31:13 usr/share/hwdata/driver.pciids.d/
-rw-r--r-- root/root       740 2012-02-08 06:54:21 usr/share/hwdata/driver.pciids.d/qla2xxx.ids

They looked like that with the preceding dot and slash before:

# cat scsi_qla.tar | tar tv
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2013-01-11 16:31:13 ./etc/
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2013-01-11 16:31:13 ./etc/vmware/
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2013-01-11 16:31:13 ./etc/vmware/driver.map.d/
-rw-r--r-- root/root       592 2013-01-11 16:31:53 ./etc/vmware/driver.map.d/qla2xxx.map
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2013-01-11 16:31:13 ./usr/
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2013-01-11 16:31:13 ./usr/lib/
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2013-01-11 16:31:13 ./usr/lib/vmware/
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2013-01-11 16:31:13 ./usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/
-rw-r--r-- root/root   1644648 2012-02-08 06:54:21 ./usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/qla2xxx
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2013-01-11 16:31:13 ./usr/share/
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2013-01-11 16:31:13 ./usr/share/hwdata/
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2013-01-11 16:31:13 ./usr/share/hwdata/driver.pciids.d/
-rw-r--r-- root/root       740 2012-02-08 06:54:21 ./usr/share/hwdata/driver.pciids.d/qla2xxx.ids

[zaspam]

Thank you very much for a quick reply.

I will summarize the actions in this post so that other people may have a complete solution to the problem.

The problem basically lies in the fact that ESXi 5.1 does not associate the generic driver (qla2xxx) with the IDs of the HBAs.

The ID of this HBA model(QLE220) is 5432, and the Vendor ID is 1077 (i.e. QLogic)

The QLogic web site states that the HBA is in its End Of Life, however Dell apparently still has some HBAs on stock and
you may still build and order a server with this specific HBA model. Dell also states that ESXi 5.1 is fully supported on this server (Dell R810).
So beware of the QLE220 if you intend to use it with VMware.

Now let's get to the solution.
I credit my solution to Andy's findings as stated in his blog article:
http://andysworld.org.uk/2011/09/20/tweaking-esxi-50-adding-un-supported-hardware-to-vmware-vsphere-esxi-50-adding-a-qle-220-to-esxi-50/

I laud his work and insight, as there is no other soultion that comes as close to the solution as he does.

As Andy points us to the right direction, in that, we need to modify the device mapping configuration files.

In ESXi 5.1 the required device map configuration files - qla2xxx.map and the complementary qla2xxx.ids - are stored in the /bootbank/scsi_qla.v01 archive( n.b. IN ESXi 5.0 these files are stored in the /bootbank/scsi_qla.v00 archive).

so the complete solution is as follows:

    cd /tmp/
    cp /bootbank/scsi_qla.v01 /tmp/scsi_qla.gz
    gunzip scsi_qla.gz
    vmtar -x scsi_qla -o scsi_qla.tar 
    mkdir /tmp/qla
    tar xvf scsi_qla.tar -C /tmp/qla/

the output is:
    etc/
    etc/vmware/
    etc/vmware/driver.map.d/
    etc/vmware/driver.map.d/qla2xxx.map
    usr/
    usr/lib/
    usr/lib/vmware/
    usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/
    usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/qla2xxx
    usr/share/
    usr/share/hwdata/
    usr/share/hwdata/driver.pciids.d/
    usr/share/hwdata/driver.pciids.d/qla2xxx.ids
   
now we edit the device map configuration files:
vi etc/vmware/driver.map.d/qla2xxx.map

and add the highlighted line:
    regtype=linux,bus=pci,id=1077:2031 0000:0000,driver=qla2xxx,class=storage
    regtype=linux,bus=pci,id=1077:2400 0000:0000,driver=qla2xxx,class=storage
    regtype=linux,bus=pci,id=1077:2422 0000:0000,driver=qla2xxx,class=storage
    regtype=linux,bus=pci,id=1077:2432 0000:0000,driver=qla2xxx,class=storage
    regtype=linux,bus=pci,id=1077:2532 0000:0000,driver=qla2xxx,class=storage
    regtype=linux,bus=pci,id=1077:5432 0000:0000,driver=qla2xxx,class=storage
    regtype=linux,bus=pci,id=1077:8001 0000:0000,driver=qla2xxx,class=storage
    regtype=linux,bus=pci,id=1077:8021 0000:0000,driver=qla2xxx,class=storage
    regtype=linux,bus=pci,id=1077:8031 0000:0000,driver=qla2xxx,class=storage
    regtype=linux,bus=pci,id=1077:8432 0000:0000,driver=qla2xxx,class=storage

The line order may not need to be sequential but I added it sequentially for clarity.

and edit the Description file
vi /usr/share/hwdata/driver.pciids.d/qla2xxx.ids

I added the highlighted line

# This file is automatically generated by pciidlib.py
# Any changes you make manually will be lost at the next build.
# Please edit <driver>.xml for permanent changes.
#

# Vendors, devices and subsystems.

# Syntax:
# vendor  vendor_name
#       device  device_name                             <-- single tab
#               subvendor subdevice  subsystem_name     <-- two tabs

1077  QLogic Corp
        2031  2600 Series 16Gb Fibre Channel to PCI Express HBA
        2400  QLA2400
        2422  ISP2422-based 4Gb Fibre Channel to PCI-X HBA
        2432  ISP2432-based 4Gb Fibre Channel to PCI Express HBA
        2532  ISP2532-based 8Gb Fibre Channel to PCI Express HBA
        5432  QLE220 4Gb Fibre Channel to PCI Express HBA
        8001  ISP81xx-based 10 GbE FCoE to PCI Express CNA
        8021  8200 Series 10GbE Converged Network Adapter (FCoE)

This is merely the description of the device and may not need to be added but I must recommend that you add it (additionally you can customize the Description)

Having done the modifcation of the device map configuration files all you need to do is reverse package the configuration files and place the new repackaged archive in its original location (/bootbank)
This will do the trick:

    cd /tmp/qla
    tar -cf scsi_qla.tar *
    vmtar -c scsi_qla.tar -o scsi_qla
    gzip scsi_qla
    mv scsi_qla.gz scsi_qla.v01
    cp scsi_qla.v01 /bootbank/scsi_qla.v01
   
Now all you need to do is reboot the server.

Once again I owe a debt of gratitude to Andy and to MKguy.
Kudos to you guys.

[kostas2911]

Thank you very much.

My solution had some differencies.

cd /tmp/
    cp /bootbank/scsi_qla.v00 /tmp/scsi_qla.gz
    gunzip scsi_qla.gz
    vmtar -x scsi_qla -o scsi_qla.tar 
    mkdir /tmp/qla
    tar xvf scsi_qla.tar -C /tmp/qla/

the output is:
    etc/
    etc/vmware/
    etc/vmware/driver.map.d/
    etc/vmware/driver.map.d/qla2xxx.map
    usr/
    usr/lib/
    usr/lib/vmware/
    usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/
    usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/qla2xxx
    usr/share/
    usr/share/hwdata/
    usr/share/hwdata/driver.pciids.d/
    usr/share/hwdata/driver.pciids.d/qla2xxx.ids
   
now we edit the device map configuration files:
vi /tmp/qla/etc/vmware/driver.map.d/qla2xxx.map

and add the highlighted line:
    regtype=linux,bus=pci,id=1077:2031 0000:0000,driver=qla2xxx,class=storage
    regtype=linux,bus=pci,id=1077:2400 0000:0000,driver=qla2xxx,class=storage
    regtype=linux,bus=pci,id=1077:2422 0000:0000,driver=qla2xxx,class=storage
    regtype=linux,bus=pci,id=1077:2432 0000:0000,driver=qla2xxx,class=storage
    regtype=linux,bus=pci,id=1077:2532 0000:0000,driver=qla2xxx,class=storage
    regtype=linux,bus=pci,id=1077:5432 0000:0000,driver=qla2xxx,class=storage
    regtype=linux,bus=pci,id=1077:8001 0000:0000,driver=qla2xxx,class=storage
    regtype=linux,bus=pci,id=1077:8021 0000:0000,driver=qla2xxx,class=storage
    regtype=linux,bus=pci,id=1077:8031 0000:0000,driver=qla2xxx,class=storage
    regtype=linux,bus=pci,id=1077:8432 0000:0000,driver=qla2xxx,class=storage

The line order may not need to be sequential but I added it sequentially for clarity.

and edit the Description file
vi /tmp/qla/usr/share/hwdata/driver.pciids.d/qla2xxx.ids

I added the highlighted line

# This file is automatically generated by pciidlib.py
# Any changes you make manually will be lost at the next build.
# Please edit <driver>.xml for permanent changes.
#

# Vendors, devices and subsystems.

# Syntax:
# vendor  vendor_name
#       device  device_name                             <-- single tab
#               subvendor subdevice  subsystem_name     <-- two tabs

1077  QLogic Corp
        2031  2600 Series 16Gb Fibre Channel to PCI Express HBA
        2400  QLA2400
        2422  ISP2422-based 4Gb Fibre Channel to PCI-X HBA
        2432  ISP2432-based 4Gb Fibre Channel to PCI Express HBA
        2532  ISP2532-based 8Gb Fibre Channel to PCI Express HBA
        5432  QLE220 4Gb Fibre Channel to PCI Express HBA
        8001  ISP81xx-based 10 GbE FCoE to PCI Express CNA
        8021  8200 Series 10GbE Converged Network Adapter (FCoE)

This is merely the description of the device and may not need to be added but I must recommend that you add it (additionally you can customize the Description)

Having done the modifcation of the device map configuration files all you need to do is reverse package the configuration files and place the new repackaged archive in its original location (/bootbank)
This will do the trick:

    cd /tmp/qla
    tar -cf scsi_qla.tar *
    vmtar -c scsi_qla.tar -o scsi_qla
    gzip scsi_qla
    mv scsi_qla.gz scsi_qla.v01
    cp scsi_qla.v01 /bootbank/scsi_qla.v00

[zaspam]

Hi,

I'm glad you found it helpful. Did you perhaps try it on an ESXi 5.5 or is it just 5.1?

Best regards,

[kostas2911]

Esxi 5.1

but qla2xxx.map was in scsi_qla.v00

and also i had to edit and

vi /tmp/qla/etc/vmware/driver.map.d/qla2xxx.map

and

vi /tmp/qla/usr/share/hwdata/driver.pciids.d/qla2xxx.ids

[einstein-a-go-go]

Just come across this...

Thank You!

Andy (of Andysworld.org.uk!)

[Fabv]

Hi,

i've tried on my HP Proliant 580 G5 server, ESXi 5.5 was crash ! :smileysad:

Someony check this on ESXi 5.5 too ?

[Fabv]

Ok for me , modify qla2xxx. it's good on an ESXi 5.5 !

Thanks So Much !

[zaspam]

Hi all,

The strangest thing has happened,

Out of my 3 R810 servers, one was pulled to my DR site and the other two were kept in my primary datacenter.

The servers had been installed with a Dell customized ISO build 2143827, and then tweaked additionally to get the QLE220s working, as it stated above in the discussion.

As you may well know the time has come for an upgrade to vSphere 6.5 and in all that I have read the QLE220 HBA were definitely out of support for esxi 6.5 .

Having that in mind I collected a couple of other HBA adapters and found a suitable one for replacing the QLE 220 HBAs - an ISP2432 based Qlogic adapter.

I booted from the Dell Customized ISO (VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.5.0-4564106.x86_64-Dell_Customized-A00.iso) and as stated in the VmWare HCL there was a stern warning that the QLE220 HBAs would not be usable (as well as a forewarning that the CPU will not be supported in future versions of the vSphere hypervisor, and a list of VIBs that were interfering with the completion of the upgrade).

Taking the easy path I chose to wipe and then reinstall anew.

After having completed the upgrade process, as was stated by the installer the QLE220 HBAs were nowhere to be found (no driver for them). Apparently there is no more qle2xxx driver in esxi 6.5.

At least that is what i thought.

After a month it was time to perform the upgrade of the other two servers.

Feeling adventurous, I tried to perform an upgrade once again. In order to obtain the list of offending VIBs that would prevent the upgrade, I booted from the Dell Customized ISO and noted down the offending VIBs.

I rebooted once again and removed the offending VIB(s).

I then booted from the installation media once again and let it perform an upgrade while preserving the VMFS .

I chose this method for upgrading because this time there was an elaborate and complex networking setup (I have no dVswitches... poor me) that had to be reestablished if I were to wipe the configuration of the server.

The upgrade process went along just fine and ended within 15-20 minutes. And then the host rebooted.

In anticipation that the HBAs would not be recognized I went into Configure just to see if the Networking configuration was properly migrated (it was), but I also clicked on the Storage Adapters.

Lo and behold there were the QLE220s ready to go, datastores were recognized and everything was as if I didn't perform the upgrade,

One HBA is not currenlty connected, which is the explanation for the Unknown there!

I was baffled... what driver was it using to handle the devices... time to investigate:

esxcli  storage core adapter list

HBA Name  Driver   Link State  UID                                   Capabilities         Description

--------  -------  ----------  ------------------------------------  -------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

vmhba38   bnx2i    unbound     iscsi.vmhba38                         Second Level Lun ID  QLogic 5709 1 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

vmhba39   bnx2i    unbound     iscsi.vmhba39                         Second Level Lun ID  QLogic 5709 1 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

vmhba0    mpt2sas  link-n/a    sas.5842b2b0778b1c00                                       (0000:05:00.0) LSI Logic / Symbios Logic Dell PERC H200 Integrated

vmhba1    vmkata   link-n/a    sata.vmhba1                                                (0000:00:1f.2) Intel Corporation ICH10 4 port SATA IDE Controller

vmhba2    qla2xxx  link-n/a    fc.20000024ff0540f0:21000024ff0540f0                       (0000:08:00.0) QLogic Corp QLE220 4Gb Fibre Channel to PCI Express HBA

vmhba3    qla2xxx  link-up     fc.20000024ff050bd9:21000024ff050bd9                       (0000:06:00.0) QLogic Corp QLE220 4Gb Fibre Channel to PCI Express HBA

vmhba64   vmkata   link-n/a    sata.vmhba64                                               (0000:00:1f.2) Intel Corporation ICH10 4 port SATA IDE Controller

vmhba40   bnx2i    unbound     iscsi.vmhba40                         Second Level Lun ID  QLogic 5709 1 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

vmhba41   bnx2i    unbound     iscsi.vmhba41                         Second Level Lun ID  QLogic 5709 1 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

vmhba34   bnx2i    unbound     iscsi.vmhba34                         Second Level Lun ID  QLogic 5709 1 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

vmhba35   bnx2i    unbound     iscsi.vmhba35                         Second Level Lun ID  QLogic 5709 1 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

vmhba36   bnx2i    unbound     iscsi.vmhba36                         Second Level Lun ID  QLogic 5709 1 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

vmhba37   bnx2i    unbound     iscsi.vmhba37                         Second Level Lun ID  QLogic 5709 1 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

So is there a qla2xxx driver in vsphere 6.5 .... there seems to be one... let's investigate further:

esxcli software vib list | grep scsi-qla

scsi-qla4xxx                   644.55.37.0-1OEM.550.0.0.1331820       QLogic    VMwareCertified   2017-02-03

scsi-qla2xxx                   902.k1.1-9vmw.550.0.0.1331820          VMware    VMwareCertified   2017-02-03

Well there it is both drivers are not intended for vSphere 6.5  (note the 550 in the name) but they are still signed by VMware and apparently are fully functional even in vSphere 6.5.

I don't know how to import these drivers back into my freshly installed server and I don't even know where to obtain these VIBs from. I suppose they may be downloaded from the Dell support site and mos likely from the Dell Customized ISO for vsphere 5.5.

Does anyone have any ideas how to go about the issue of obtaining and installing the VIBs?

[zaspam]

All right,

I went on to upgrade my third server to 6.5 and when I booted from the installation media I was warned that there is full list of offending VIBs,
and among them was the scsi_qla2xxx version 540 which is not supported by vsphere 6.5

So I went on to seek how to update the VIB.

I did manage to find the  following VIB file : VMware_bootbank_scsi-qla2xxx_902.k1.1-12vmw.550.3.68.3029944.vib

but I did not manage to update the system as esxcli software vib install /update was failing with the message System not modified and VIB skipped

So I went on to fully update the system by installing the

VMware ESXi 5.5, Patch ESXi550-Update03: ESXi 5.5 Complete Update 3 (2110231)

You can download it from http://support.vmware.com/selfsupport/download/ (login is required).

What upgrading to Update 3 did was that it reverted the changes that I have done to the configuration files and as a result there are no storage adapters present (once again).

Queue the tweaking procedure again (as stated in the posts above).. reapply the tweak and voila the missing HBAs and datastores are  here again.

Next I booted up the server again from the Dell Customized ISO (VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.5.0-4564106.x86_64-Dell_Customized-A00.iso) to see what offending VIBs are there left to remove in order to be able to cleanly upgrade to vSphere 6.5.

Success the qla2xxx VIB is not considered a problem ... the upgrade may continue !

And finally the host is up and upgraded to vSphere 6.5.