For Today's blog I would like to share how to use the VMware Product and Hardware Compatibility Site. This is useful during the upgrade/migration projects in your environment.
Also this is helpful for the initial troubleshooting incase we face some issue after the upgrade like the following PSOD, Network and Storage issues.
Base in my personal experience sometimes we missed out to check if the latest version released by VMware still supported our existing Physical Server and Drivers. I hope you find this blog helpful.
Here is the VMWare products compatibility Guide:
Here is the Hardware compatibility Guide:
Topics:
- Verifying Hardware compatibility & BIOS firmware
- Verifying Storage and SAN devices compatibility and Drivers
- Support and Driver for Network NIC Cards
- Support and Driver for Storage HBA Cards
Note: Here will explain how to find the exact driver and download the driver for targeted ESXi version.
Verifying Hardware compatibility & BIOS firmware:
- Go to the VMware Compatibility guide site https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php
- Make sure Product Release Version and System Type set to All
- In Partner Name Select which Vendor. In my example I use the Cisco
- Then in Search Keyword I input UCS and Click Update and View Results
- Search for the exact server Model with CPU as shown below and find if the desired ESXi version is compatible or not.
- As shown below M5 model supports till ESXi 6.5 U2 while M6 model supports till ESXi 6.7U3
- Click on the ESXi version to find the supported hardware firmware details
- Recommended BIOS and hardware firmware details will be shown as below. Install them before installing ESXi.
- Now you know how to verify the Hardware & BIOS firmware compatibility. I hope it's useful for you
Verifying Storage and SAN devices compatibility and Drivers:
- Go to the VMware Compatibility guide site and Select Storage/SAN https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?deviceCategory=san
- Make sure Product Release Version and System Type set to All
- Select the Vendor and provide the storage model in keywords – click update( In my example I use Infinidat Storage Vendor )
- Search for the Exact storage Model – Select the storage and click on the ESXi Version
Note: if an ESXi version is not showing in the list, its either not supported or not yet validated by vmware.
- All the supported drivers and firmwares list will be shown for the storage.
- Now you know how to verify the Storage and SAN devices compatibility and Drivers. I hope it's useful for you
After knowing the Hardware and Storage Compatibility, all the necessary drivers for NIC cards, FCOE, FC (HBA) and multi path needs to be decided as well.
Here will explain how to find the exact driver and to download the driver for targeted ESXi version.
How to check Support and Driver for Network NIC Cards:
- Login to the ESXi SSH and Run esxcli network nic list to get all NIC cards available on the Host
Note: To determine the recommended driver for the card, we must obtain the Vendor ID (VID), Device ID (DID), Sub-Vendor ID (SVID), and Sub-Device ID (SDID) using the vmkchdev command.
- Get the Vendor ID (VID), Device ID (DID), Sub-Vendor ID (SVID), and Sub-Device ID (SDID) using the vmkchdev command vmkchdev -l |grep vmnic0
- This is the device driver version output 0000:62:00.0 1137:0043 1137:0215 >> vmkernel vmnic0
To Specify 0000:62:00.0 1137:0043 1137:0215
Vendor ID (VID) = 1137
Device ID (DID) = 0043
Sub-Vendor ID (SVID)= 1137
Sub-Device ID (SDID) = 0215
- Login to the ESXi SSH
- Get the driver and firmware in use for NIC card. Run esxcli network nic get -n vmnic0
Find the supported NIC driver and download driver.
Select IO Devices in the vmware compatibility guide https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php
- Then provide the VID, DID SVID and SDID that you get
Vendor ID (VID) = 1137
Device ID (DID) = 0043
Sub-Vendor ID (SVID)= 1137
Sub-Device ID (SDID) = 0215
- Then Click Update and View Results
- Now you can see all the supported ESXi versions for the NIC cards will show as below.
- Now select the ESXi version you want to check ( In my example I use the 7.0U3 )
- To download the driver just click the link as per above screen capture
- Now you know how to verify and check the the Network NIC Cards compatibility and Drivers. I hope it's useful for you
How to check Support and Driver for Storage HBA Cards:
- Login to the ESXi SSH
- Get Host Bus Adapter Driver currently in use, Run esxcfg-scsidevs -a
- Output will show something like vmhba0 mptspi or vmhba1 lpfc in my case it's vmhba1 nfnic
- Get the HBA driver version currently in use
- Run vmkload_mod -s nfnic |grep Version
Note: To determine the recommended driver for the card, we must obtain the Vendor ID (VID), Device ID (DID), Sub-Vendor ID (SVID), and Sub-Device ID (SDID) using the vmkchdev command.
- Get HBA Vendor ID (VID), Device ID (DID), Sub-Vendor ID (SVID), and Sub-Device ID (SDID) using the vmkchdev command vmkchdev -l |grep vmhba1
- This is the device driver version output 0000:62:00.6 1137:0045 1137:0215 >> vmkernel vmhba1
- To specify 0000:62:00.6 1137:0045 1137:0215
Vendor ID (VID) = 1137
Device ID (DID) = 0045
Sub-Vendor ID (SVID)= 1137
Sub-Device ID (SDID) = 0215
Find the supported Storage HBA Cards driver and download driver.
Select IO Devices in the vmware compatibility guide https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php
- Then provide the VID, DID SVID and SDID that you get
Vendor ID (VID) = 1137
Device ID (DID) = 0045
Sub-Vendor ID (SVID)= 1137
Sub-Device ID (SDID) = 0215
- Then Click Update and View Results
- Now you can see all the supported ESXi versions for the Storage HBA Cards will show as below.
- Now select the ESXi version you want to check ( In my example I use the 7.0U3 )
- As you can see below that's the device driver supported for ESXi 7.0U3
- To download the driver just click the link as per above screen capture
- Now you know how to verify and check the the Storage HBA Cards compatibility and Drivers. I hope it's useful for you