Recommend option 3 or 4. Cannot sign off on option 1 or 2 for production.
A VMware community post from a user named “StorageGuy_42”: “Gen9 + ESXi 8 = random PSODs (purple screens of death) during high queue depth. Found the issue? Out-of-tree driver for the Smart Array P440ar. VMware won’t backport. HP won’t write a new one. Dead end.” hp proliant dl360 gen9 vmware compatibility
Subject: DL360 Gen9 + VMware 8 – Compatibility risk Recommend option 3 or 4
And in the quiet hum of the data center, the Gen9s—unsupported, unloved, but flawlessly stable in their second life—backed up another night’s work without a single purple screen. Found the issue
His daughter still brings up that missed pizza night. But she also knows that sometimes, Dad saves the company not with heroics, but with a boring spreadsheet and the courage to say “no.”
Mark leaned back. The refurbished Gen9s were a bargain—$800 each instead of $5,000. The CFO had practically hugged him. But now, reality.
The four Gen9 servers cannot run vSphere 8 with full driver support. They will likely boot. They will likely fail unpredictably under load. Options: