VMware ESXi 6.7 memory health warnings after ProLiant SPP

During the deployment of a vSAN cluster consisting of multiple HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10 hosts, I noticed a memory health warning after updating the firmware using the Support Pack for ProLiant. The error was definitely not shown before the update, so it was clear, that this was not a real issue with the hardware. Furthermore: All hosts showed this error.

The same day, a customer called me and asked me about a strange memory health error after he has updated all of his hosts with the latest SPP…

My first guess, that this was not caused by a HW malfunction was correct. HPE published a advisory about this issue:

The Memory Sensor Status Reported in the vSphere Web Client Is Not Accurate For HPE ProLiant Gen10 and Gen10 Plus Servers Running VMware ESXi 6.5/6.7/7.0 With HPE Integrated Lights-Out 5 (iLO 5) Firmware Version 2.30

To fix this issue, you have to update the ILO5 firmware to version 2.31. You can do this manually using the ILO5 interface, or you can add the file to the SPP. I’ve added the BIN file to the USB stick with the latest SPP.

If you want to update the firmware manually, simply upload the BIN file using the built-in firmware update function.

1. Navigate to Firmware & OS Software in the navigation tree, and then click Update Firmware
2. Select the Local file option and browse to the BIN file
3. To save a copy of the component to the iLO Repository, select the Also store in iLO Repository check box
4. To start the update process, click Flash

You can download the latest ILO5 2.31from HPE using this link. After the FW update, the error will resolve itself.

Only ESXi 6.7 is affected, and only ESXi 6.7 running on HPE ProLiant hosts, regardless if ML, DL or BL series.