ESXi 5.5 to 6 on HP ProLiant BL460c G7

[mobinqasim786]

Hi Guys,

I've having a strange issue upgrading from ESXi 5.5 Update 2 to ESXi 6.0 Update 1. I've following hardware:

HP ProLiant BL460c G7

6 CPUs x 2.533 GHz

Intel (R) Xeon(R) CPU

E5649 @ 2.53GHz

VMware compatibility matrix shows that this hardware is compatible with ESXi 6.0 Update 1. When I upgraded from ESXi 5.5 Update 1 to ESXi 6.0 Update 1 my host networking is't working. On iLO console I can see host showing upgrade to ESXi 6.0 Update 1 with all the configs still in there, but I can't ping it in or ping out of it. Also it's really slow if I want to change options in the shell.

I tested to revert it back to ESXi 5.5 and everything started working as before.

Could someone please help me with this? Do I need to upgrade some drivers to make this working?

Regards,

Mobin

[a_p_]

Which ESXi image are you using for the upgrade (VMware or HP OEM)?

You can find the the links to the HP OEM images at http://www.hp.com/go/esxidownload

Btw. please ensure that you update the "esx-base" vib to the latest available after installing the HP image (see e.g. https://esxi-patches.v-front.de/ESXi-6.0.0.html)

André

[mobinqasim786]

Hi Andre,

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm using VMware ISO image. Do I need to upgrade it using HP ISO?

Regards,

Mobin

[a_p_]

You can use the HP ISO image to upgrade the host. The vendor OEM images only add (or replace) additional hardware related drivers and tools.

André

[mobinqasim786]

I'll try to upgrade using HP ESXi image and see how it goes. So could it possibly be the reason that upgrade using VMware ISO didn't upgrade latest drives for HP?

Cheers

[a_p_]

Yes, that's possible. Depending on the hardware you are using (e.g. the mezzanine cards in the blades) you may need drivers which are not provided included in the default VMware image.

André

[mobinqasim786]

I've just tried to upgrade using "HP Custom Image for VMware ESXi 6.0 U1 Install CD" but the issue persist.

Any other idea what could be causing this issue?

Regards,

Mobin

[a_p_]

I can't unfortunately tell you what exactly is causing the issue. However, it might be worth a try to update the host's BIOS to the latest, and - unless already done - apply the "esx-base" patch I mentioned earlier, since this patch resolves networking issues.

André

[mobinqasim786]

Hi Andre,

Thanks for the update. I'll try to upgrade BIOS and then go for the ESXi upgrade again. Just for the info, I can upgrade the host up to ESXi 5.5 Patch 5 build 2718055 and as soon as I upgrade the next ESXi patch which is ESXi 5.5 Update 3 Build 3029944, it starts getting same problem. So it's something new in ESXi 5.5 Update 3 which is causing issues.

Regards,

Mobin

[a_p_]

According to the HP Quickspecs (http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/getpdf.aspx/c04123266.pdf?ver=1) this server model contains the NC553i, which is an OEM branded Emulex adapter. As shown in the ESXi 5.x Patch Matrix the "elxnet" driver was replaced with the builds you mentioned, which may be related to your issue. According to the HCL for the NC553i adapter, the required driver can be found at https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=DT-ESXI55-EMULEX-ELXNET-1051217&productId=353 respectively https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=DT-ESXI60-EMULEX-ELXNET-1051217&productId=491. Alternatively you can download the same driver from HP's support site (http://h20565.www2.hpe.com/portal/site/hps  -> "HPE Servers, Storage and Networking"). The recommended firmware version for the adapter is 10.5.96.0 which is included in the latest SPP (HP® Servers - Service Pack for ProLiant).

Once you are on ESXi 5.5 Update 3, or ESXi 6.0 Update 1, consider to update "esx-base" to the latest (for details see https://esxi-patches.v-front.de/ESXi-5.5.0.html)

André

[mobinqasim786]

Hi Andre,

I tried to Upgrade BIOS firmware and also updated Emulex NIC drivers though I wasn't able to update NIC firmware. So I ended up using extra NICs which my server had and everything went well.

Appreciate for your help mate

Regards,

Mobin

[Haferbrei]

Hi,

can you tell me, which extra NIC´s you have in your BL460c G7?

I´m facing a similar issue.

In my case, the ESX Server cant be restarted or shutdown, without getting PSD, which is caused by my extra Mezzanine NIC HP NC382m

So it would be nice to know, which card you have.

[Numero1]

I have similar issue when installing HPE custom image esxi 6.0 U2 on BL460c Gen7 with integrated CNA NC553i.

The blades have been updated to latest SPP (OCT2015).

The ESXi install fails with error: "no network adapter found"

I believe the SPP is "disabling" the NC553i adapter.

Any help appreciate.

Thanks

[rwk1982]

Try to flash the NC553i Firmware again with this iso: http://h20564.www2.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=co_154246_1&swEnvOid=54

It is the same Version as on the OCT2015 SPP but after the reflash the NICs worked again

[RasikJesadiya]

Thanks!

Get solved my issue by using this NIC Driver

Rasik Jesadiya

[gherardini1]

I ran into the same issue with my BL465c G7 Blades. While I did have older Emulex firmware, which was updated as suggested above, I continued to have the same issue after upgrading to the latest version, the HPE branded ESXi v6.0U2 setup kept failing

While upgrading the firmware, it kept mentioning OneConnect, my Blades were running OCe10, the driver package in the ESXi setup was loading OCe11 drivers [check the documentation] for the NICs, hence, failure. Weird, because the G7's are even listed on the compatibility list.

What eventually fixed it for me was injecting the downgraded OCe10 driver into the ESXi v6 setup .iso image. Find it here: Download VMware vSphere