vCenter 5.0 decommission checklist (windows)

Here's a small checklist I do when decommissioning Windows based vCenters where we have already moved all hosts out. 5.0 is super easy in this sense since the roles aren't distributed. This assumes the server will be decommissioned and was dedicated to just vCenter.

1. Remove all licenses that were already migrated (you can't remove the last vCenter license)
2. Rename the vDC explaining where the hosts are now and let it sit there for a while so admins that may log in get it (there should have been proper emails and stuff through other channels about the change)
3. Confirm where VUM (upgrade manager) is installed in the VUM config
4. Check the Add/Remove programs for installed programs
5. Run odbcad32.exe to check the DB server for vCenter (in the System DSN)
6. Where VUM is installed in the same server, which you may have confirmed from the installed programs list, use c:\Windows\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe to check the 32-bit System DSN and DB server details
7. Uninstall VMware add-on programs that will need vCenter access to remove their plugins
8. Uninstall additional software like PowerCLI, Converter, etc
9. Uninstall vCenter (which uninstalls orchestrator).
10. Uninstall the vSphere client
11. Uninstall the embedded or standard SQL server (you really want to make sure the database server wasn't used for anything else!). If the DB is in a remote location, work with your DBAs to archive/decommission the database
12. Update your documentation, CMDB details, etc

Now take care of OS decommissioning tasks

VMware VSAN basics (nested lab)

With everything VSAN it's important to remember to work through the web client, and at this moment, only the flex version supports all commands (h5 doesn't have them yet).

1. Create 3 or more nested hosts with at least 6GB RAM (add more for your VMs). 
2. Setup a separate VMK that you will tag for VSAN traffic. I set these on a separate NIC and subnet, in a vSS with no uplink, using VMXNET3 interfaces (10GB) to separate from the 1GB where i'm running management and VM traffic. Don't forget to set promiscuous mode on the switch so everyone can ping each other.
3. Add an SSD disk, and a capacity disk (in the case of hybrid). I found that my nested host picked up the type automatically, but I'm pretty sure you can "tag" the device as SSD or HD from the interface as needed, in case you want to test all flash.
4. Create a cluster, move 3 or more hosts in
5. Enable VSAN, which will take you through the wizard that enables VSAN.

That's really it. You will see a new vsanDatastore datastore that is shared among all hosts. You can rename this datastore. There's a performance service and a health service you can check. If you did everything well, you will pass all tests except the HCL, for obvious reasons.

Very important - when putting a host in maintenance mode, always do it from the webclient. There are new options that VSAN exposes in a drop down!

Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1.6 MP5 addresses important vulnerabilities

Seems even the client needs to be updated (not just the managers) which means you need to have the whole environment upgraded. This requires downtime on each server (normally a reboot if things go well).

https://www.symantec.com/security_response/securityupdates/detail.jsp?fid=security_advisory&pvid=security_advisory&year=&suid=20160628_00

https://support.symantec.com/en_US/article.INFO3801.html

https://support.symantec.com/en_US/article.DOC9352.html

There was another set of vulnerabilities fixed (SYM16-011), for the manager side particularly, in this same release

https://www.symantec.com/security_response/securityupdates/detail.jsp?fid=security_advisory&pvid=security_advisory&year=&suid=20160628_01

Otherwise it does include some fun new capabilities, like certified compatibility with vsphere 6, sql server 2016, and the latest Ubuntu LTS release

Seems Google were the ones to find the vulnerabilities, among others

https://www.engadget.com/2016/06/29/google-symantec-antivirus-flaws-are-as-bad-as-it-gets/

https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2016/06/how-to-compromise-enterprise-endpoint.html 

What disk was ESXi installed to?

I was talking with a colleague on how to find out which device ESXi was installed to. This is important especially when 

1) you don't have documentation and are adding a new host and you want to be consistent
2) are doing a hardware change and are not sure if replacing a SD card or disks could also remove ESXi

Understanding this means you need to understand how ESXi partitions whatever disk device you gave it for installation. ESXi creates several partitions, and if there's free space, will create a VMFS partition on the remaining disk space and call it datastoreX. From the vCenter/ESXi console, the administrator is mostly looking at datastores, not realizing they are partitions.

Datastores are type VMFS partitions, and the ESXi installation files are stored on partitions of type vfat. When we ask ESXi where it's installed, the answer is a partition; however, we are probably more interested in getting the disk information. Typically, this means we need to translate the partition to the naa ID of the disk. 

Fastest way i've found:

You need three (for just device info) or four commands if you want to know what datastore was also created on that same disk device. Follow the colors to know what to use for command inputs:

1 ~ # esxcfg-info -b

dea75b72-115e5271-3e7b-9b3ef7301455

2 ~ # esxcfg-scsidevs -f | grep dea75b72-115e5271-3e7b-9b3ef7301455

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5:5                           /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5:5 dea75b72-115e5271-3e7b-9b3ef7301455

3 ~ # esxcli storage core device list -d naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5
   Display Name: Local DELL Disk (naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5)
   Has Settable Display Name: true
   Size: 6673408
   Device Type: Direct-Access
   Multipath Plugin: NMP
   Devfs Path: /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5
   Vendor: DELL
   Model: PERC H710
   Revision: 3.13
   SCSI Level: 5
   Is Pseudo: false
   Status: on
   Is RDM Capable: false
   Is Local: true
   Is Removable: false
   Is SSD: false
   Is Offline: false
   Is Perennially Reserved: false
   Queue Full Sample Size: 0
   Queue Full Threshold: 0
   Thin Provisioning Status: unknown
   Attached Filters:
   VAAI Status: unsupported
   Other UIDs: vml.02000000006b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5504552432048
   Is Local SAS Device: false
   Is USB: false
   Is Boot USB Device: false


   No of outstanding IOs with competing worlds: 32

Now you know the Display Name, Size (MB, meaning the above is 6.36TB), Vendor and Model of the device where ESXi was installed (in the case of a RAID disk, you get the controller details).

However, you may still not be sure of what that device is. Since we tend to think of datastores, we can issue one more command to find out which VMFS datastore is on that same disk:

4 ~ # esxcli storage vmfs extent list | grep naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5

RAID6-9x1TB-SAS     54255423-f706a47a-6e39-90b11c4fcfc5              0  naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5          3

And there you have it. You probably remember which virtual disk ties to a datastore name.

Sadly, I haven't yet found a way to assure you that you have picked the right device, if, for example, you have two identical virtual drives. I wish there was a command in racadm that showed the naa (SasAddress) of a virtual disk, but I have not found it. The closest I found was 

racadm raid get vdisks -o

and it doesn't show the SasAddress, although it's clearly shown in the ESXi installation steps (this is from another server so the naa IDs don't match, but you see my point):

By the way, getting the naa identifier of a physical disk from racadm is easy 

racadm raid get pdisks -o -p name,SasAddress,MediaType

and very useful for VSAN - this post by @sebastiangrugel shows it well.

Thanks to @sjin2008 who made an excellent post on esxcli commands and showed up in google when I needed to get a table relating mount points / UUIDs to Volume Name


Other ways

Googling around I found two related KBs:

KB2014558 tells us the type of installation, but not where it was installed. However, it's a good idea to check the installation type, just in case this host was booted off PXE.
KB2030957 is useful. It will tell you the device, but if you were trying to figure out what datastore it relates to, it doesn't do that and you do the 4th command above.

Here are a few commands related to this.

Good command to show the bootbank , altbootbank and scratch partitions

~ # ls -l /
total 525
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root            49 Sep 30  2014 altbootbank -> /vmfs/volumes/6308247d-8d9ec099-ae26-5ec2d9ba9e00
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root           512 Sep 30  2014 bin
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root            49 Sep 30  2014 bootbank -> /vmfs/volumes/dea75b72-115e5271-3e7b-9b3ef7301455
-r--r--r--    1 root     root        300059 Aug 23  2014 bootpart.gz
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root           512 Jun  3 09:29 dev
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root           512 Jun  3 08:35 etc
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root           512 Sep 30  2014 lib
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root           512 Sep 30  2014 lib64
-r-x------    1 root     root         14040 Sep 29  2014 local.tgz
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root             6 Sep 30  2014 locker -> /store
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root           512 Sep 30  2014 mbr
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root           512 Sep 30  2014 opt
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root        131072 Jun  3 09:29 proc
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root            22 Sep 30  2014 productLocker -> /locker/packages/5.5.0
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root             4 Aug 23  2014 sbin -> /bin
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root            49 Sep 30  2014 scratch -> /vmfs/volumes/54255423-287d3e20-5dd5-90b11c4fcfc5
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root            49 Sep 30  2014 store -> /vmfs/volumes/5425541a-bbf00056-e4c2-90b11c4fcfc5
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root           512 Sep 30  2014 tardisks
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root           512 Sep 30  2014 tardisks.noauto
drwxrwxrwt    1 root     root           512 Jun  3 09:01 tmp
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root           512 Sep 30  2014 usr
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root           512 Sep 30  2014 var
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root           512 Sep 30  2014 vmfs
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root           512 Sep 30  2014 vmimages
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root            17 Aug 23  2014 vmupgrade -> /locker/vmupgrade

All these are a good way of seeing the partitions and their different formats, and the disk devices.

~ # df -h

Filesystem   Size   Used Available Use% Mounted on

VMFS-5     557.5G 212.5G    345.0G  38% /vmfs/volumes/RAID10-4x300GB-SSD

VMFS-5       6.4T   1.2T      5.2T  18% /vmfs/volumes/RAID6-9x1TB-SAS

VMFS-5       1.1T 392.5G    722.7G  35% /vmfs/volumes/RAID10-8x300GB-SSD

vfat         4.0G  28.7M      4.0G   1% /vmfs/volumes/54255423-287d3e20-5dd5-90b11c4fcfc5

vfat       249.7M 157.3M     92.4M  63% /vmfs/volumes/dea75b72-115e5271-3e7b-9b3ef7301455

vfat       249.7M   8.0K    249.7M   0% /vmfs/volumes/6308247d-8d9ec099-ae26-5ec2d9ba9e00

vfat       285.8M 193.4M     92.4M  68% /vmfs/volumes/5425541a-bbf00056-e4c2-90b11c4fcfc5

~ # esxcli storage filesystem list

Mount Point                                        Volume Name         UUID                                 Mounted  Type             Size           Free

-------------------------------------------------  ------------------  -----------------------------------  -------  ------  -------------  -------------

/vmfs/volumes/54290d18-1f6d577a-44e2-90b11c4fcfc5  RAID10-4x300GB-SSD  54290d18-1f6d577a-44e2-90b11c4fcfc5     true  VMFS-5   598611066880   370453512192

/vmfs/volumes/54255423-f706a47a-6e39-90b11c4fcfc5  RAID6-9x1TB-SAS     54255423-f706a47a-6e39-90b11c4fcfc5     true  VMFS-5  6989522403328  5715596935168

/vmfs/volumes/54290d55-396ddecc-89f2-90b11c4fcfc5  RAID10-8x300GB-SSD  54290d55-396ddecc-89f2-90b11c4fcfc5     true  VMFS-5  1197490569216   776033271808

/vmfs/volumes/54255423-287d3e20-5dd5-90b11c4fcfc5                      54255423-287d3e20-5dd5-90b11c4fcfc5     true  vfat       4293591040     4258988032

/vmfs/volumes/dea75b72-115e5271-3e7b-9b3ef7301455                      dea75b72-115e5271-3e7b-9b3ef7301455     true  vfat        261853184       96870400

/vmfs/volumes/6308247d-8d9ec099-ae26-5ec2d9ba9e00                      6308247d-8d9ec099-ae26-5ec2d9ba9e00     true  vfat        261853184      261844992

/vmfs/volumes/5425541a-bbf00056-e4c2-90b11c4fcfc5                      5425541a-bbf00056-e4c2-90b11c4fcfc5     true  vfat        299712512       96935936

~ # esxcli storage core device partition listDevice                                Partition  Start Sector   End Sector  Type           Size

------------------------------------  ---------  ------------  -----------  ----  -------------

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5          0             0  13667139584     0  6997575467008

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5          1            64         8192     0        4161536

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5          2       7086080     15472640     6     4293918720

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5          3      15472640  13667139551    fb  6989653458432

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5          5          8224       520192     6      262127616

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5          6        520224      1032192     6      262127616

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5          7       1032224      1257472    fc      115326976

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5          8       1257504      1843200     6      299876352

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5          9       1843200      7086080    fc     2684354560

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807902555b244          0             0   2339373056     0  1197759004672

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807902555b244          1          2048   2339373023    fb  1197757939200

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb806fa1c66c62d          0             0   1169686528     0   598879502336

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb806fa1c66c62d          1          2048   1169686495    fb   598878436864

~ # esxcli storage core device partition showguid

Device                                Partition  Layout  GUID

------------------------------------  ---------  ------  --------------------------------

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5          0  GPT     00000000000000000000000000000000

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5          1  GPT     c12a7328f81f11d2ba4b00a0c93ec93b

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5          2  GPT     ebd0a0a2b9e5443387c068b6b72699c7

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5          3  GPT     aa31e02a400f11db9590000c2911d1b8

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5          5  GPT     ebd0a0a2b9e5443387c068b6b72699c7

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5          6  GPT     ebd0a0a2b9e5443387c068b6b72699c7

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5          7  GPT     9d27538040ad11dbbf97000c2911d1b8

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5          8  GPT     ebd0a0a2b9e5443387c068b6b72699c7

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5          9  GPT     9d27538040ad11dbbf97000c2911d1b8

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807902555b244          0  GPT     00000000000000000000000000000000

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807902555b244          1  GPT     aa31e02a400f11db9590000c2911d1b8

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb806fa1c66c62d          0  GPT     00000000000000000000000000000000

naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb806fa1c66c62d          1  GPT     aa31e02a400f11db9590000c2911d1b8

~ # esxcli system visorfs ramdisk list

Ramdisk Name  System  Include in Coredumps   Reserved      Maximum       Used  Peak Used   Free  Reserved Free  Maximum Inodes  Allocated Inodes  Used Inodes  Mount Point

------------  ------  --------------------  ---------  -----------  ---------  ---------  -----  -------------  --------------  ----------------  -----------  ---------------------------

root            true                  true  32768 KiB    32768 KiB    532 KiB    544 KiB   98 %           98 %            8192              4096         3654  /

etc             true                  true  28672 KiB    28672 KiB    184 KiB    216 KiB   99 %           99 %            4096              1024          463  /etc

tmp            false                 false   2048 KiB   196608 KiB      4 KiB    228 KiB   99 %           99 %            8192               256            3  /tmp

hostdstats     false                 false      0 KiB  1078272 KiB  12704 KiB  12892 KiB   98 %            0 %            8192                32            5  /var/lib/vmware/hostd/stats

snmptraps      false                 false      0 KiB     1024 KiB      0 KiB      0 KiB  100 %            0 %            8192                32            1  /var/spool/snmp

~ # ls -alh /vmfs/devices/disks 

total 17176196976

drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         512 Jun  3 09:25 .

drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         512 Jun  3 09:25 ..

-rw-------    1 root     root           0 Jun  3 09:25 mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L1

-rw-------    1 root     root      557.8G Jun  3 09:25 naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb806fa1c66c62d

-rw-------    1 root     root      557.7G Jun  3 09:25 naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb806fa1c66c62d:1

-rw-------    1 root     root        1.1T Jun  3 09:25 naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807902555b244

-rw-------    1 root     root        1.1T Jun  3 09:25 naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807902555b244:1

-rw-------    1 root     root        6.4T Jun  3 09:25 naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5

-rw-------    1 root     root        4.0M Jun  3 09:25 naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5:1

-rw-------    1 root     root        4.0G Jun  3 09:25 naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5:2

-rw-------    1 root     root        6.4T Jun  3 09:25 naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5:3

-rw-------    1 root     root      250.0M Jun  3 09:25 naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5:5

-rw-------    1 root     root      250.0M Jun  3 09:25 naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5:6

-rw-------    1 root     root      110.0M Jun  3 09:25 naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5:7

-rw-------    1 root     root      286.0M Jun  3 09:25 naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5:8

-rw-------    1 root     root        2.5G Jun  3 09:25 naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5:9

lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root          20 Jun  3 09:25 vml.0000010000766d68626133323a303a31 -> mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L1

lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root          36 Jun  3 09:25 vml.02000000006b8ca3a0e704b3001bb806fa1c66c62d504552432048 -> naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb806fa1c66c62d

lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root          38 Jun  3 09:25 vml.02000000006b8ca3a0e704b3001bb806fa1c66c62d504552432048:1 -> naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb806fa1c66c62d:1

lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root          36 Jun  3 09:25 vml.02000000006b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807902555b244504552432048 -> naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807902555b244

lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root          38 Jun  3 09:25 vml.02000000006b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807902555b244504552432048:1 -> naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807902555b244:1

lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root          36 Jun  3 09:25 vml.02000000006b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5504552432048 -> naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5

lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root          38 Jun  3 09:25 vml.02000000006b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5504552432048:1 -> naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5:1

lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root          38 Jun  3 09:25 vml.02000000006b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5504552432048:2 -> naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5:2

lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root          38 Jun  3 09:25 vml.02000000006b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5504552432048:3 -> naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5:3

lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root          38 Jun  3 09:25 vml.02000000006b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5504552432048:5 -> naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5:5

lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root          38 Jun  3 09:25 vml.02000000006b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5504552432048:6 -> naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5:6

lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root          38 Jun  3 09:25 vml.02000000006b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5504552432048:7 -> naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5:7

lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root          38 Jun  3 09:25 vml.02000000006b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5504552432048:8 -> naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5:8

lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root          38 Jun  3 09:25 vml.02000000006b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5504552432048:9 -> naa.6b8ca3a0e704b3001bb807e52a66aad5:9

Commands to keep handy when checking storage (and to show datastore with naa IDs)

I needed a command to show me the naa IDs with the datastore names. This is the best I've found so far:

esxcfg-scsidevs -m

~ # esxcfg-scsidevs -m
naa.JACKPOT1:1 /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.something1:1 ESXi_GUID  0  Datastore1
naa.JACKPOT2:1 /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.something2:1 ESXi_GUID  0  Datastore2

I found this particular command to have other very good options as well. These are other three options or commands that show a lot of info on your storage devices:

esxcfg-scsidevs -l

esxcfg-mpath --list

esxcli storage core device list

This last one is particularly useful if you need to determine which naa ID corresponds to an iSCSI target name!

Working with the Dell sold Samsung NVMe XS1715 SSD 800GB

TL:DR - you will probably need to do a firmware downgrade and driver update to comply with the HCL. Don't trust the Dell installer or OME Linux updater!

We bought some Dell servers that have this NVMe drive. As far as I know, this is the only hot-plug NVMe drive they sell for the R730XD series, but I suspect this will change sometime in the future.

The installer originally used on this server didn't have the NVMe driver, so I wasn't being able to see the drive in my storage interface. To make sure the drive is working properly before installing the driver, you can check it shows up in the storage section of the iDRAC interface and you can use this command to see if this PCIe device shows up in ESXi.

~ # lspci -v |grep NVMe
0000:87:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller Mass storage controller: Samsung, Inc. Express Flash NVMe XS1715 SSD 800GB

With this information, even without having it mapped to an vmhba yet, I can get the 4 hardware IDs and be able to check this device in the HCL

~ # vmkchdev -l |grep 0000:87:00.0

0000:87:00.0 144d:a820 1028:1f96 vmkernel

In my case, this is being installed with 5.5u3.

Firmware:

The firmware version for all ESXi releases is the same (IMP0DD3Q), and a quick google shows this is the initial release of the firmware from 2014. This server has already had an OME boot CD run, and I didn't see any updates to this device; but checking in iDRAC, it shows I am running a different release, IPM0ID3Q:

Checking the Dell page for that firmware release, it seems this is the 3rd release, and the VMware HCL has not caught up to these releases. The release I'm currently running is from June 2015 and improves the wear levelling algorithm, while the 2nd release improves management functions. Tsk tsk, VMware/Dell...

For now it seems I will have to figure out how to downgrade the firmware to comply with HCL. I checked the VSAN HCL as well, and there are currently no Samsung NVMe drives certified, but I was told by other vExperts they are in progress and will update once I have news on that front. Once I figure it out, I will update this section.


Driver:

Installing using the Dell image to this date (VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.5.0.update03-3568722.x86_64-Dell_Customized-A05.iso) I was able to see the driver used with a "esxcli storage core adapter list"

vmhba7 nvme link-n/a pscsi.vmhba7 (0:135:0.0) Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Dell Express Flash NVMe XS1715 800GB PCIe SSD Controller
And we can check this driver's information with "vmkload_mod -s nvme"

~ # vmkload_mod -s nvme
vmkload_mod module information
 input file: /usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/nvme
 Version: 1.2.0.27-4vmw.550.0.0.1331820
 License: BSD
 Required name-spaces:
  com.vmware.vmkapi#v2_2_0_0
 Parameters:
  nvme_compl_worlds_num: int
    Total number of NVMe completion worlds/queues.
  nvme_dbg: int
    Driver NVME_DEBUG print level
  io_timeout: int
    IO timeout second for internal checker
  max_scsi_unmap_requests: int
    Maximum number of scsi unmap requests supported
  max_namespaces: int
    Maximum number of namespaces supported
  io_cpl_queue_size: int
    NVMe number of IO completion queue entries
  io_sub_queue_size: int
    NVMe number of IO submission queue entries
  admin_cpl_queue_size: int
    NVMe number of Admin completion queue entries
  admin_sub_queue_size: int
    NVMe number of Admin submission queue entries.
  nvme_log_level: int
    Log level.
        1 - error
        2 - warning
        3 - info (default)
        4 - verbose

        5 - debug

As seen in the HCL in the beginning of this post, the only driver version on the HCL is 1.0e.0.30-1vmw so I will also need to download and install a custom driver for this card. At least in vSphere versions 6.0+ it lists the VMware inbox driver instead.

The driver from the VMware site should be downloaded, saved to a datastore or /tmp, and then the commands to uninstall and install should be run. I'll paste the commands here soon.

ESXi command to see others connected to an SSH session

Short but sweet - the command is who

login as: root
Using keyboard-interactive authentication.
Password:
The time and date of this login have been sent to the system logs.

VMware offers supported, powerful system administration tools.  Please
see www.vmware.com/go/sysadmintools for details.

The ESXi Shell can be disabled by an administrative user. See the
vSphere Security documentation for more information.
[root@arielitox:~] who
root            char/pty/t0     00:00   Apr 14 18:36:28  rmtpasanchezw8.home
root            char/pty/t1     00:00   Apr 14 18:36:48  rmtpasanchezw8.home

Apparently it doesn't really detect the hostname (my second session is from a VM in workstation, but it picked the physical machine name). Hope it helps :)