Where can I find what drivers will be installed when I install a version of vSphere

[cursur949]

I am working on an entire infrastructure upgrade that contains some extremely old versions, two to three major releases, of just about every piece of of the environment (servers, storage, and networking). 

What I am trying to figure out is that if I update the vSphere hosts will it have an issue with the extremely old storage version. 

Naturally I would use the HCL to find the driver versions I would need to end up on doing the upgrade but what I can't find is what drivers are packaged with a specific vSphere without doing an install of it and using the below link. Does anyone know if this is documented anywhere?

VMware KB:    Determining Network/Storage firmware and driver version in ESXi/ESX 4.x, ESXi 5.x, and...

Thanks for your help!

[minor76]

What kind of hardware are you using, HP, IBM, Dell, Cisco, NetApp, etc...?  Most vendors will provide their own custom ESXi ISO image which contains current drivers and such. You can also search my VMware for custom ISO from a specific vendor.  If you are doing an upgrade from 5.x to 6.x you will have to verify if your hardware is even supported and what firmware versions are required.  You can check the compatibility matrix for upgrades: https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/sim/interop_matrix.php?type=0&empty=0&solution=43&pla... and check the hardware compatibility matrix:  https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php

Your best bet is to contact the vendor about firmware upgrades with Storage and maybe Networking depending on your experience.  I added new HP blades into a 4yr old blade center that was neglected and never updated but in order to add new blades I had to do firmware upgrades to the entire unit.  I did a lot of research and reached out to the vendor to verify there would be no impact.  If you do your homework you will be fine.

[cursur949]

The upgrade is 4.1 to 5.5.  I am aware of the custom ISOs but I have the same problem with those ISOs as the VMware ISOs, I can't find anywhere that it says, for example if you install 5.5 you will be installing be2iscsi 4.6.261.0 or if you install 5.0 you are going to be installing be2iscsi 4.x.x.x. I have checked the HCL and know what versions I need but before updating the hosts i want to make sure i won't be upgrading them to a non supported setup. 

[a_p_]

Please see whether http://vibmatrix.v-front.de/ provides the information you are looking for.

André

[minor76]

Well again that depends on the hardware you are running.  Dell tells you exactly what drivers/firmware are packaged with the custom Image, as does HP.  The example:

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=YGH6K, and HP https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?productId=353&downloadGroup=HP-ESXI-5.5.0U2-GA#product_down...

[cyberfed2727]

I would try VMware directly and ask them what driver version for XXXX is part of a vanilla ESXi 5.5 install. However, like the other guys mentioned you'll probably want to use the Vendor supplied ISO's vs using the generic VMware ISO if possible, those vendors list the drivers they bundle with their ISO.

Sounds like you are stuck trying to clean up a large mess left over by someone else. If the task is as large as it seems it is you might be better off spending some time loading ESXi 5.5 on a test host and connect it up to storage and see how it behaves to eliminate all doubt.

What is your storage?