NVM upgrade ESXi 8.0

[MH97]

How does one upgrade firmware of X710 under ESXi 8.0?
Upgrade process for former versions of ESXi does not work for v8.0.
There is VIB file enclosed but there's no installation instructions.

[IntelSupport]

Hello MH97,

Greetings for the day!!

Could you please share the link where you are attempting to upgrade the firmware.

Please share the complete adapter model name along with the server serial number and model.

Best Regards,

Vishal

[MH97]

Hello,

I cannot tell you S/N because there is no way to determine it without turning server off and opening case and looking at sticker.
HPE ILO won't reveal it neither ESXi and I don't think intnetcli-esx80 is capable of that either.

Product is Intel(R) Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X710-T4 and it is placed in HPE server.
This not HPE branded NIC!

I downloaded 700Series NVMUpdatePackage_v9_50_ESX.tar.gz.

I've managed to upgrade FW of this ethernet NIC couple of times but this time I'd like to avoid 2 reboots (first reboot is needed for booting UEFI stick with extracted NVMUpdatePackage_v9_50_ESX.tar.gz and second boot (coldboot) is needed for upgraded firmware to take effect).

For ESXi version < 8.0 one can execute ./nvmupdaten64e from NVMUpdatePackage_v9_50_ESX.tar.gz.
But ESXi v8.0 won't let you because of new security constraints implemented in v8.0 (https://www.reddit.com/r/vmware/comments/16ca2rk/updating_firmware_on_esxi_8/?rdt=46046).

HPE has published upgrade procedure for its NICs and it is like this:
1) upload ZIP to ESXi and unzip it
2) install ESXi VIB xxx.vib
3) execute /opt/xxx/yyy to upgrade FW

As I wrote earlier there's a VIB (Intel-esx-nvmupdaten64e_1.41.3.3-800.20613240_23699590.zip) inside NVMUpdatePackage_v9_50_ESX.tar.gz.
But I cannot find any steps how to proceed further - basically I need similar steps like 2) and 3) above.

Intel® Ethernet NVM Update Tool: Quick Usage Guide for VMware ESX  documentation is outdated (2022-02-01).

[MACM]

Hi MH97,

Greetings from Intel support.

Hope you are doing well.

Thank you for the update.

Could you please let us know if you have received the Network adapter along with the HPE server.

So that we can go ahead and proceed further accordingly.

Please contact us for any further assistance.

Thank you for using Intel products and services.

Best Regards,

Mohammed Ali CM

[MH97]

No, I did not.

[Sachinks]

Hello MH97,

Thank you for the update.

May I know if you have tried running the command to disable execInstalledOnly as described in the reddit thread you have shared?

command : esxcli system settings advanced set -o /User/execInstalledOnly -i 0

It seems like this had solved the issue for them.

Kindly let us know if you have tried it.

Regards,

Sachin KS

[MH97]

It is not that simple if you run servers with SecureBoot and TPM (which none of them in Reddit thread has been).
Don't trust too much Reddit threads.
Do your own internal investigation.

As I wrote earlier, HPE already published standard upgrade procedure for ESXi v8.0 (with SecureBoot and TPM).
The above in Reddit thread is workaround for vendors which have not been able to conform with new security standards (ESXi v8.0 was released 1 year and 7 months ago (11 Oct 2022)).

I expect Intel to update its documentation to support upgrade procedure on ESXi v8.0.

[Sachinks]

Hello MH97,

Thank you for the update.

We will check this and get back to you with an update at the earliest.

Regards,

Sachin KS

[IntelSupport · Accepted solution]

Hello MH97,

Greetings!!

Please verify and then proceed with the following instructions:

tar -xvf E810_NVMUpdatePackage_v4_20_ESX.tar.gz

(or just copy .VIB file to ESXi host)

after extracted .VIB file need to be moved here: /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/

Then run following command on the host.

esxcli software vib install -v /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/INT_bootbank_int-esx-nvmupdaten64e_800.1.39.32.3-20143090.vib --no-sig-check

Reboot

Then go to directory where NVM is stored:

cd X710/ESXi_x64

Run this command:

/opt/intel/bin/nvmupdaten64e

Please feel free to reply to this email. We're here to assist you every step of the way.

Best Regards,

Vishal

[MH97]

Thanks, it works.
Only difference I have /opt/nvmupdaten64e/bin/nvmupdaten64e instead of /opt/intel/bin/nvmupdaten64e

[Azeem_Intel]

Hello MH97,

Greeting!

Thank you for your response. We will proceed to close the case for now. If you require any further assistance, please don't hesitate to let us know.

Note: You may receive an invitation to take a survey in a few days. We value your feedback and look forward to hearing about your support experience.”

Best Regards,

Azeem_Intel

[IntelSupport]

Hello MH97,

Greeting!

Thank you for your response. We will proceed to close the case for now. If you require any further assistance, please don't hesitate to let us know.

Note: You may receive an invitation to take a survey in a few days. We value your feedback and look forward to hearing about your support experience.”

Best Regards,

Vishal