Questions with ESXi 6.7 U3 on PowerEdge R6515

[bmstewart]

I'm using the Dell custom image for 6.7 U3, doing a fresh install of ESXi and VCSA.

1: After installing ESXi, on the host's web client I saw a message stating  "You are running a DellEMC Customized version of VMware ESXi Image. Note that this is a static file and doesn’t get updated upon updates".  What does this mean, exactly?  Will Update Manager detect and apply updates for this host or not?  Do I need to do anything special to make Update manager patch or upgrade this host in the future?

2: There was a warning in the events complaining about the size of the scratch partition.  It said it was too small and that the recommended size was basically 6 GB.  Everything I've raid states that the installer should do this automatically.  If that's the case, why did it make it too small?  (It seems to have created a 4GB partition for it.)  Do I need to do something about this, or should I ignore it?  What's the impact if the scratch partition is too small?

3: Also for storage, I can't seem to get a list of the installed drives or their condition like I've had with other Dell servers with PERC devices.  I did install the Dell VIB for iDRAC Service module integration. (Before that, there was just a notice about CIM being disabled.)  Should I expect to see status of the individual drives?

4: I have a ton of sensors with unknown status values.  I have some that match the ones shown at VMware Knowledge Base , and I have some related to fans, and a whole bunch of others.  Is this expected, or a known bug?  Is there something I need to do?  I can provide screenshots if that's helpful.

5: I've also installed the Dell VIB for OpenManage, but I don't think I'll be using OpenManage.  Should I uninstall the VIB, or is it necessary for some other functionality?

6: How do I update the Dell Dell VIBs? If I add the Dell patch URL to Update Manager, I can select the Dell VIBs and add them to an Extension baseline, but each version of the VIB has its own entry.  Can I make UM update the baseline automatically with new versions of the Dell VIBs and then tell me when hosts need to be updated?  Or do I have to handle the Dell VIBs myself?

7: We're using local storage from Dell's built-in RAID controller (PERC).  This was flagged as being a non-flash device.  Once I had VCSA up and running, I tried to mark it as being an SSD device, but got an error stating it was unable to reconfigure the disk claim rules. I then attempted the same thing using the CLI following a guide that was for an older version of ESXi, and after a reboot it seemed to work and the device is shown as an SSD, not HDD.  Should I have done anything differently?

8: Regarding the VCSA installation, I've been doing it with just an IP (not an FQDN).  I've read a couple posts stating that this isn't supported, but I'm not sure if that's true or not.  I could setup an FQDN using a .local address, but I've also heard that wasn't supported.  I can setup a real DNS entry, but the authoritative DNS servers holding that entry would be running on the vSphere stack.  If they go down or are misconfigured for whatever reason, I don't want to be stuck in a scenario where my VCSA is messed up.  Is setting up the VCSA using an IP address and not an FQDN an actual problem?

Thanks