ESXi Custom ISOs - am I missing a trick?

[ChrisS_UK]

Gents,

Usually when building an environment, I just check to see if the hardware is on the HCL. However I've noticed that Dell etc have their own custom ISOs.

I was just wondering - is it worth using these in place of the standard image straight from VMware?

1. What do the custom images give you over the standard - for example when using HP blade based hosts?

2. Are there are drawbacks from using the images - for example does this mean I have to wait for the vendor to include any security updates? If I roll an update to hosts with a custom image with Update Manager will it break the build?

Also - I've noticed that HP have an offline bundle - if I just apply this to a standard image will that bring it in line with the custom image?

Cheers

[abhilashhb · Accepted solution]

What do the custom images give you over the standard - for example when using HP blade based hosts?

Custom images are those images that are created by Hardware Vendors in which they not only have ESXi provided drivers but also other updated drivers that are provided by the vendor. They also include third party CIM's and other  updated drivers(Certified by VMware) into the image. This way the customers who own the equipment by dell,HP etc don't have to worry about updating the drivers after they installed ESXi.

If you don't use such customized images then you could run into problems such as devices not being recognized by ESXi and stuff. I don't see any drawbacks. you can also build your own custom image by injecting the required drivers into ESXi image using many tools.

So its a good practice to use the customized bundle. But yes you will have to wait for the vendor to release the image. That's one bad thing about it.