UPDATE: HP has fixed this issue with their branded installation media. Use the following link to download directly from HP:

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/software/vmware/esxi-image.html

For general information on performing this process in case drivers are excluded from the installation media in the future, read on!

I recently decided to update a couple hosts in our demo center to vSphere 5.1. These hosts are HP Blades (BL460 and BL490 G7s) in a C7000 chassis with Emulex CNAs and Flex-10/FlexFabric Virtual Connects. These servers are all configured to boot from SAN using FCoE LUNs. To get started, the first place I went was to HP’s Customize VMware ESXi Images for HP ProLiant Servers site, which directed me to download from VMware. First time booting to this ISO I found that no volumes were available for installation:

After thoroughly checking to make sure nothing became misconfigured with the SAN zoning, I rebooted into the Emulex BIOS and found that the host could see the LUNs, but the VMware installer could not. Digging a bit further, I found a link to HP’s page: Driver Versions in HP supplied VMware ESX/ESXi images.  Doing a quick comparison between packages included in vSphere 5.0u1 and 5.1 I found that there are actually five bundles that are no longer included:

Bummer! Looks like it’s time for an exercise in Image Builder. The rest of this blog post demonstrates how to take the HP Customized Installer, combine with the be2net Offline Bundle, and create a bootable ISO.  If you just want to use the ISO provided, you can skip to the top or the bottom of this post.  The first step is to launch PowerCLI.  I didn’t have this installed on my new vCenter 5.1 host, so I grabbed the latest PowerCLI 5.1 installer. After changing the PowerShell Execution Policy, I launched PowerCLI and was off and running.  Next, I had to download the ZIP file of the HP Custom Image (VMware-ESXi-5.1.0-799733-HP-5.30.28.zip) found here: https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=HP-ESXI-5.1.0-GA-10SEP2012&productId=285 and the Emulex OneConnect Driver for ESXi 5.1 found here: https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?downloadGroup=DT-ESXI50-Emulex-be2net-423270&productId=285

In PowerCLI, I imported the ZIP file, using:

Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl C:\VMware-ESXi-5.1.0-799733-HP-5.30.28.zip

I retrieved the image profile name using:

Get-EsxImageProfile

Using the name provided from the previous command, I created a new package using:

New-EsxImageProfile -CloneProfile HP-ESXi-5.1.0-standard -Name “HP-ESXi-5.1.0-standard-be2net” -vendor Hewlett-Packard

I added the Emulex be2net OneConnect Driver downloaded earlier using:

Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl C:\be2net-4.2.327.0-offline_bundle-837998.zip

I added the net-be2net software package to the image profile using:

Add-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile HP-ESXi-5.1.0-standard-be2net -SoftwarePackage net-be2net

I confirmed that the new package was added using:

Get-EsxSoftwarePackage -Name net-be2net

Finally, I exported to ISO using:

Export-EsxImageProfile -ImageProfile HP-ESXi-5.1.0-standard-be2net –filepath C:\Windows\Temp\VMware-ESXi-5.1.0-799733-HP-5.30.28-be2net.iso –exporttoiso

Just in case I need to make changes down the road, I also decided to export the custom image to a bundle using:

Export-EsxImageProfile -ImageProfile HP-ESXi-5.1.0-standard-be2net –filepath C:\Windows\Temp\VMware-ESXi-5.1.0-799733-HP-5.30.28-be2net.zip –exporttobundle

Finally, to test out the image, I rebooted my host to the ISO and voila! I can now see the FCoE Boot volume!

Now I was off and running and could complete the rest of my vSphere 5.1 update in our demo center!

Click here to download the updated HP Customized ESXi 5.1 installer with the be2net offline bundles mentioned in this article. Alternatively, click here to download the ZIP file for additional customization.

If you have any questions, comments, or just want to leave feedback, please do so below. If you work for HP or know someone who can explain why the be2net drivers were excluded from HP’s ESXi 5.1 installer, I’d love to hear from them!  Thanks for reading!

–youngtech