Update HP Proliant 380p Gen8 Drivers w/ ESXi 5.1 Installed

[Jimstigator]

Hey there,

I am looking to update some drivers on a new HP Proliant 380p Gen8 server that servers as a host (ESXi 5.1).  When the server boots, there are some pre-OS options, such as bios, HP's Intelligent Provisioning, etc, etc.  Within these options, you can run a full scan of drivers and apply updates as needed.  Can this be used instead of vCenter Server, or could it ruin the install?  It would be much easier to just let HP do its thing than to manually scan the HP support center, find drivers, and apply via vCenter Server.

Thanks!
Jim

[AGDave]

Just for a bit of clarification here, does the HP software download and install drivers *or* firmware revisions? IE - are these OS-Agnostic updates?

I have a similar setup with my Dell Servers. I use the dell pre-OS environment to update firmware for my FIbre Channel adaptors, BIOS, NICs etc. I then use vCenter update manager to manage ESXi drivers for these devices.

[a_p_]

An alternative to manually downloading and applying patches is to add http://vibsdepot.hp.com/index.xml as an update repository to Update Manager.

André

[Jimstigator]

Great question.  I am speaking to the "HP Intelligent Provisioning - Firmware Update" option.  As I understand it, this would be updates to the device itself, hence OS-agnostic.  A great example being a NIC firmware update.  If I run these through the HP IP update tool, its safe?

-Jim

[Jimstigator]

Thanks I will look into it!

-Jim