Recommend option 3 or 4. Cannot sign off on option 1 or 2 for production.
1. Run vSphere 6.7 (end of support 2022) – security risk, compliance fail. 2. Run vSphere 7.0 (ends 2025) – possible but driver instability reported on the P440ar controller. 3. Return the Gen9s, pay restocking, buy Gen10s – extra $12k, but supported until 2029. 4. Use the Gen9s for non-production (dev/test, backup target) and buy new hosts for prod.
The four Gen9 servers cannot run vSphere 8 with full driver support. They will likely boot. They will likely fail unpredictably under load. Options: hp proliant dl360 gen9 vmware compatibility
He hit send at 6:12 PM. Pizza would be cold. His daughter would be annoyed. But the call he didn’t want to get at 3 AM from a warehouse unable to ship orders? That call would not happen.
He sighed, cracked open a cold can of soda that had been living in his drawer since Tuesday, and turned back to his dual monitors. On one screen: the Bill of Lading for four refurbished HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9 servers. On the other: VMware’s Compatibility Guide—the sacred text, the Rosetta Stone, the final arbiter of what would sing together and what would scream. Recommend option 3 or 4
The HP support matrix. It confirmed the Gen9’s last supported vSphere version was 6.7 U3—end of general support 2022.
Two weeks later, the Gen9s were racked—not as ESXi hosts, but as dedicated ZFS backup servers running Ubuntu. The new Gen10s purred under vSphere 8, fully green on the compatibility matrix. And Mark? He learned to check compatibility before the purchase order, not after. Run vSphere 6
The words hit him like a cold draft from a failed CRAC unit. Not listed. That didn’t mean “it won’t boot.” It meant “when it panics at 2 AM, VMware support will smile politely and point to this screen.” It meant the HBA driver might load, but the NVMe namespace might stutter. It meant the agent for the iLO management might fail to report a failing power supply.