HP Smart Update Best Practices Planning Guide

the HP Support Pack for ProLiant Release Notes. HP provides a recommended list of drivers and
firmware for HP ProLiant servers running VMware ESXi 5.x and later. For information on the driver,
firmware, and the associated HP SPP release, see the VMware Firmware and Software Recipe at
http://vibsdepot.hp.com/.
HP SUM requires the WBEM Providers for VMware ESXi to update the VMware targets. For
information on using HP SUM to update VMware targets, see the HP Smart Update Manager User
Guide.
VMware ESXi 4.x and earlier
To update the firmware on a server blade running VMware ESX or ESXi, evacuate the VM guests
to an alternate host before shutting down the VMs. To update the firmware on these servers, use
the HP SPP. Even though the firmware update process involves offline updates, use the same
installation order that is used for server blades that already have an installed operating system.
The recommended installation order follows.
NOTE: A purple screen (PSOD) will be displayed in VMware ESXi 4.1 during either installation
of, or upon reboot after, an offline firmware update using the HP Firmware Update DVD 9.0, or
later (containing QLogic NIC Firmware Version 4.0.520 or later) if the server contains an HP
NC522m Dual Port 10GbE Multifunction BL-c Adapter, an HP NC522SFP Dual Port 10GbE Gigabit
Server Adapter, or NC524SFP Module. For more information on how to resolve this issue, see the
advisory located website at http://h20564.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/public/kb/docDisplay/
?docId=emr_na-c02496982.
Choose a deployment tool
Always use the HP SPP to deploy in all modes, except when the following conditions exist:
• If you do not have an operating system installed, you must use the offline ISO image.
• If you are updating targets on the network, you need a network connection under Windows
or Linux.
HP SUM is normally the tool to use to deploy firmware. It is located in the HP SPP in the \hp\
swpackages directory and is executed in both offline and online environments. In some instances,
the following tools are recommended:
• VCSU (for any of the issues that prevent using HP SUM to perform an update. For more
information, see “VCSU” (page 30).
• SIM (for large scale deployments, more than 100 concurrent targets, and baseline). For more
information, see “HP SIM and Version Control Agent” (page 29).
32 Update tools