It contains firmware for a specific server type and corresponding drivers. For HPE this is called the HPE Customization for HPE Servers.įirmware and Drivers Add-on: The firmware and drivers add-on is a special type of vendor add-on designed to assist in the firmware update process.

This vendor add-on can contain drivers, patches, and solutions. Vendor Add-on: A vendor add-on is a collection of software components for the ESXi hosts that OEMs create and distribute. For anybody who’s ever done server patch management manually, this is quite the game changer.Ī vLCM desired state image consists of the following elements:ĮSXi Version: The base image is an ESXi release version that contains an image of VMware ESXi Server and additional components such as drivers and adapters that are necessary to bring up a server. vLCM detected that my servers had software and firmware that was older than my desired image and with a few clicks, I was able to kick off a non-disruptive and fully automated remediation of my entire cluster. The deployment, configuration and testing was very straightforward and in the end, I had a desired state image consisting of ESXi, and server software and firmware that managed all the hosts in my cluster. I recently had the opportunity to deploy and test vLCM on HPE servers and wanted to share my experience. vLCM is a powerful new approach to simplified consistent lifecycle management for the hypervisor and the full stack of drivers and firmware for the servers powering your datacenter. One of the more exciting new features from vSphere/ vSAN 7 is vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM).

Demo license previously installed ilo