Hardware model "Whitley" displayed instead of "CYP" for ESXi hosts in vCenter.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• ^{Within the vSphere Client inventory, the ESXi host's hardware model is incorrectly identified as "Whitley" instead of the expected Intel "CYP" platform (e.g., "M50CYP2SBSTD").}
• ^{The physical server's out-of-band Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) correctly reflects the upgraded "CYP" platform.}
• ^{This issue typically surfaces immediately following a physical system board (motherboard) replacement by the hardware vendor.}
• ^{When querying the ESXi host directly via the command line, the smbiosDump utility confirms the host is reading the incorrect product name from the hardware:}

^{[root@esxi-host:~] smbiosDump | grep -i "Product"   Product: "WHITLEY"}

^{(A healthy, non-impacted host will output the correct string, such as Product: "M50CYP2SBSTD").}

Environment

• ^{VMware ESXi (All Versions)}
• ^{vCenter Server (All Versions)}
• ^{Intel Hardware Platforms (Specifically CYP/Whitley architectures)}
• ^VCF

Resolution

^{To permanently resolve this issue, the hardware identity must be corrected at the physical layer, followed by a software baseline reset.}

^{Step 1: Correct the Hardware FRU Data (OEM Vendor)}

• ^{Engage your hardware vendor (e.g., Intel, Dell, HPE, Lenovo) and provide the smbiosDump output as evidence.}
• ^{Request that the hardware vendor utilize their OEM-specific utility to properly flash and reprogram the system board's FRU data.}
• ^{The vendor must ensure the SMBIOS correctly broadcasts the specific model string (e.g., "M50CYP2SBSTD") rather than the generic "WHITLEY" family string.}

^{Step 2: Re-establish the ESXi Baseline Once the hardware vendor confirms the physical server is broadcasting the correct SMBIOS identity, perform a fresh reinstallation of the ESXi hypervisor.}

^{While ESXi may pick up the new name upon a standard reboot, a fresh installation is a critical best practice following a motherboard identity change. This guarantees that the hypervisor establishes a pristine baseline and ensures that no legacy configuration files, stale hardware UUIDs, or improper device mappings are carried over into your production cluster.}

Additional Information

^{Please refer to the Broadcom KB for collecting the Esxi logs: https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/319493/collecting-diagnostic-information-for-vm.html}