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VMware ESXi 6.5 - Hardware not yet certified for upgrade

vmware-hcl-65Double check your vendor support when updating ESXi hosts from VMware vSphere 6.0 to 6.5. Some systems have not been certified by their vendor yet. The following servers were supported in vSphere 6.0 but are according to VMwares HCL not yet supported in vSphere 6.5.

Your server is listed and you want to upgrade?

  • Usually, the list gets smaller a couple of weeks after a new vSphere version has been released. I will update this post when I notice changes.
  • Not supported does not say that it does not work.
  • Servers get certified by their vendor, not VMware. If you want a server to get certified, ask your vendor.
  • Vendor support matrices sometimes differ from VMware HCL. Please ask your vendor or VMware whether you are allowed to upgrade.
  • The list has been created with the help of my HCL in JSON Format.
  • Follow the comments to get notified about updates.
  • Did I miss something? Please comment.


Last Update: May 2, 2018

You might want to check support information published by server vendors:

The following list is based on VMware HCL:

Source: VMware HCL | List created with JSON based HCL

Related posts:

  1. vSphere 5.0 & 5.1 End of Support soon - Upgrade your ESXi Hosts
  2. VMware ESXi 6.0 - Unsupported Hardware
  3. VMware ESXi 5.5 - Unsupported Hardware
  4. VMware ESXi 6.0 - Unsupported Hardware (All Vendors)
  5. Updating ESXi from 5.0 to 5.1 - Unsupported Hardware
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21 thoughts on “VMware ESXi 6.5 - Hardware not yet certified for upgrade”

    1. fgrehl

      The list is about servers that were previously supported. The NUC was never supported.

      (You can run ESXi6.5 on NUC5/NUC6 systems, despite it is unsupported)

      Reply
  3. VMnomad

    That looks more like an issue with VCG rather than actual support of these servers. I cannot believe VMware would drop vSphere 6.5 support for brand new servers

    Reply

  4. Pingback: PowerCLI Script to verify ESXi 6.5 support | Virten.net

  6. VMpartner

    "..but are according to VMwares HCL no longer supported in vSphere 6.5" would be more accurately described as "not yet supported in 6.5". It always takes a little time for the vendors to complete certification on all of their hardware and they can only target so much for GA. The rest will come in the following weeks to months. If you have questions about the plan for specific models you should reach out to the vendor. Not being listed does not mean they are not planning to list. That said there will be older hardware that is not rectified and carried forward by the vendor.

    Reply
  9. Eduardo Costa

    Just for information.
    Tried to install in Proliant G7. At installation warns that the processor might become unsupported in future versions (2x X5660). After install, hangs after network config/reboot. After System Reset, P410i says it hangs with lock up code 0x14. At the the end of boot, PSOD with PF Exception 14 in world.

    Reply
    1. P. Cruiser

      Eduardo, disabling the P410i controller in the system setup/bios fixed the issue for me. Luckily I'm not using any disks connected to that controller.

      Reply
        1. P. Cruiser

          Which driver are you using? I think the new native nhpsa driver loads by default. You could try disabling that driver and using the vmklinux hpsa driver.

          Reply
    3. one

      I used the esxi-customizer v2.5.0 and added hpsa-6.0.0.124-offline_bundle-4683364.zip to the official HPE image (VMware-ESXi-6.5.0-OS-Release-4564106-HPE-650.9.6.0.28-Nov2016-depot.zip). After that the esx crashed with a psod pointing to sfcb-smx. So I added ams-esxi6.0-bundle-10.5.0-15.zip (contains hpe-smx-limited 600.03.11.00.9-2768847) and hpe-esxi6.0uX-bundle-2.6.0-22.zip (contains hpe-smx-provider 600.03.11.00.9-2768847).
      No more psod (yet).

      Reply
  12. Ben

    Thank you for putting this together. We have multiple data centers filled to the brim with IBM / Lenovo 3850 X5s & 3650 M4/M5s and we can't upgrade. At the same time we have Dell PowerEdge R930s we can't put on ESXi 5.5 because *those* are too new for ESXi 5.5 in a 4 socket config. Sooo... my old servers can't upgrade and my new servers must upgrade.

    I'd go to 6.0 but I really don't have the time to be upgrading my entire vSphere environment to a new major release every year or two.

    Reply
    1. P. Cruiser

      You're much better off with those Dell servers in the long run. They seem to get new releases of ESXi certified along with the customized ISO's almost as fast as HP. Lenovo probably takes the longest of all the vendors, especially for hardware over 3 years old.

      Reply
  15. Oliver Hardt

    I've the error the system will not show the P410 Raid controller hpssacli command, but ESXi 6.5 runs fine on ML110G6 (customHPEimage). After removing vib (vibname=nhpsa) the hpssacli commands runs also.

    Reply
    1. one

      Using the latest HPE image and bundles from vibsdepot.hpe.com the "hpssacli" command was replaced by "ssacli"?!
      [root@esx1:~] esxcli | grep ssa
      ssacli Smart Storage Administrator CLI
      [root@esx1:~]

      But the syntax is still the same:
      [root@esx1:~] esxcli ssacli cmd -q "ctrl all show"

      Smart Array P410i in Slot 0 (Embedded) (sn: 5xxxxxxxxxxxxxx0)

      [root@esxi1:~]

      Reply

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