OEM Custom ESXi ISO or Vendor Add-on is unavailable for older firmware

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• When attempting to perform an ESXi Host upgrade (e.g., v7 to v8.0U3) on Cisco hardware, the certified Cisco Custom ESXi ISO or Vendor Add-on (VIB Bundle) required for a specific, older Cisco firmware version (e.g., 4.3(6c)) is unavailable for download on the Broadcom downloads page.
• Only the most recent certified component (e.g., for Cisco firmware 4.3(7a)) is listed and available for download.
• Verification of the Broadcom Entitlements download page confirms that older, superseded certified components are not hosted.

Environment

VMware ESXi 

Cause

The root cause is the standard component hosting policy for OEM Custom ISOs and Add-ons. Broadcom (formerly VMware) only hosts the single, most recent certified OEM Custom ISO and Add-on for each vSphere version (e.g., 8.0U3).

The older, requested component certified for the specific firmware version (e.g., 4.3(6c)) has been superseded by a newer component and is therefore no longer hosted on the Broadcom site. This policy is detailed in KB 366685

Resolution

This is a condition that may occur in a VMware NSX environment where a host component has been superseded.

There are two primary options to obtain the required installation component:

Option 1: Contact the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to get the older firmware. 

1. The OEM (e.g., Cisco) is responsible for hosting older certified versions of their Custom ISOs and Vendor Add-ons.
2. Contact the OEM Support (e.g., Cisco Support) directly to request the certified Custom ESXi ISO or Vendor Add-on specific to your current firmware (e.g., 4.3(6c)).

Option 2: Utilize vCenter Life Cycle Manager (vLCM) to build a custom image. 

You can manually build a custom ESXi image that includes the  required VIBs by using vLCM.

1. Obtain the Vendor Add-on VIBs from the OEM (e.g., Cisco) that are certified for your specific firmware (e.g., 4.3(6c)).
2. In vCenter Life Cycle Manager, import the VIBs from the OEM.
3. Create a custom ESXi ISO using vLCM, incorporating the imported VIBs.

See Product documentation for steps to do this: 

Create a Custom ESXi ISO Image Using vSphere Lifecycle Manager

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vcf/vcf-5-2-and-earlier/5-2/map-for-administering-vcf-5-2/prepare-esxi-hosts-for-vmware-cloud-foundation-admin/create-a-custom-iso-image-for-esxi-admin/create-a-custom-esxi-iso-image-using-vsphere-lifecycle-manager-admin.html

Working With the vSphere Lifecycle Manager Depot

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/vsphere/8-0/managing-host-and-cluster-lifecycle-8-0/working-with-vsphere-lifecycle-manager-depots/updating-the-vlcm-depot.html

 

Additional Information

For further details regarding the standard component hosting policy, please refer to:

https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/366685/vmware-vsphere-downloads-vmware-converte.html.