How to match H series compute node firmware to the VMware Hardware Compatibility List

Applies to

• H series compute nodes
  • H300E
  • H500E
  • H700E
  • H410C
  • H610C
  • H615C
• NetApp HCI

Description

As there are several vendor products within a NetApp H series compute node, determining the VMware compatibility of a particular component can be ambiguous.

For instance, on an H410C node (manufactured by SuperMicro), the VMware Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) includes entries for the internal Mellanox storage NICs under both the chassis vendor (SuperMicro) and Mellanox itself.

• If you select Mellanox Technologies Inc, ESX 6.7U3 and Keyword 25gbe, then select the MCX4121A NIC, you will not see the 14.21.1000 NIC firmware version that the H410C ships with among the specific firmware versions on the supported list
• If you select Supermicro Computer Inc, ESX 6.7U3, and Keyword nic, then select MH25G, the firmware list will be blank, meaning no specific versions have been identified and added to the list by VMware (in which case the direction is to defer to the vendor--NetApp in this case--as source of truth for which versions to use)

Given the above, how do you know which is the latest supported Mellanox NIC firmware for the NetApp H series compute nodes? The answer: obtain the specific vendor id's (VID, DID, SVID, SSID) from the ActiveIQ API output and plug those into the HCL in order to obtain the most precise answer.