Patching vSAN 6.7 clusters

[AutoEng]

Hi all,

For those of you running vSAN 6.7, I am interested to hear about your upgrading and patching experience, i.e. installing monthly patch releases or upgrading from U1 to U3 for example.

We use HPE servers (ReadyNodes). We make use of the HPE Custom ESXi ISO.

I noticed that when I patch the hosts, for example from 6.7 U3 to EP13 (November 2019 patches), the network card driver is replaced by a newer version (newer VIB).

This means its not officially supported as it doesn't match the HCL in terms of the correct firmware and driver combination.

So how are you all working around this or handling this situation when installing the latest round of VMware bug / security fixes in a vSAN environment?

[T180985]

I had this issue also, fortunately HPE allows you to create custom images which should let you remove the driver but failing that, you're just going to have to manually remove the patch from the baseline before you patch.I would just create a fixed baseline to patch from and make sure you only include what you want... Its tedious but what can you do.

[AutoEng]

The HPE image is fine, as that is what is certified, the problem is the actual VMware released rollups that causes the problem. Unbelievable, as vSAN is their own product!

[T180985]

Yes but the roll ups have to include patches for hosts not using vSAN, the ESXi 6.7 HCL is different from the vSAN HCL unfortunately. Your best best is to create a custom baseline and only apply what you know work