Short answer: VCF 9 hardware support is decided in four places. The Broadcom Compatibility Guide (BCG) must list the server model and every I/O device for ESX 9.x. The CPU must not be discontinued in KB 318697. No device may be End of Life in KB 391170. For vSAN ESA, the NVMe devices must be ESA-certified, and the vSAN HCL database in vCenter, SDDC Manager and the VCF Installer must be less than 90 days old. This page walks through the four checks in the order an upgrade fails them.
The four checks at a glance
| Check | Where | What blocks VCF 9 | Details on vDan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Server model and I/O devices | Broadcom Compatibility Guide: Systems/Servers and I/O Devices, release ESX 9.0 or 9.1 | The model or device has no ESX 9.x listing | this page |
| CPU generation | Broadcom KB 318697 (formerly 82794) | The CPU is “Discontinued” for 9.x | KB 82794 / 318697 CPU tables |
| Deprecated drivers and devices | Broadcom KB 391170 | The device is “End of Life”: ESX 9.0 no longer claims it | ESX 9.0 deprecated devices (searchable) |
| vSAN ESA devices and the HCL DB | BCG vSAN ESA view, plus the local all.json in vCenter, SDDC Manager and the VCF Installer | Non-certified NVMe, or an HCL DB older than 90 days | vSAN HCL DB offline update · ESA HCL lab workaround |
Collect what the host actually has
The BCG searches by model, by CPU series and, for I/O devices, by the four PCI IDs (VID, DID, SVID, SSID). Get them from the ESXi shell:
esxcli hardware platform get # vendor and server model
esxcli hardware cpu global get # CPU packages, cores
esxcli hardware cpu list | head -20 # Family / Model / Stepping (decimal)
vmkchdev -l | grep -E "vmnic|vmhba" # VID:DID SVID:SSID per NIC and storage adapter
esxcli network nic list # driver and link per vmnic
esxcli network nic get -n vmnic0 # driver and firmware version
esxcli storage core adapter list # storage controllers and drivers
esxcli storage core device list | grep -E "Display Name|Vendor|Model|Revision"vmkchdev -l prints the IDs as vid:did svid:ssid. Enter all four in the BCG I/O Devices search. The VID:DID pair alone matches a whole chip family, while the SVID:SSID pair identifies the vendor’s specific card, and that is what the listing certifies.
1. Server model: the BCG Systems listing
Search the BCG for the exact server model and pick release ESX 9.0 or 9.1. Two details decide most cases:
- The listing names CPU series. A model listed for ESX 9.x with newer CPUs doesn’t cover the same chassis with an older CPU generation.
- The OEM must keep the model listed. KB 318697 states that even a deprecated CPU stays supported only while the server OEM keeps the model in the BCG.
On Cisco UCS, check the UCS firmware bundle against the ESX release as well. The BCG entry for a UCS server lists the supported firmware, and the matching nenic/nfnic driver versions come from Cisco’s UCS hardware and software compatibility tool.
2. CPU: deprecated or discontinued in 9.x
KB 318697 has two tables. “Discontinued” CPUs block ESX 9.x installation and upgrade. “Deprecated” CPUs are fully supported in 9.x but will be blocked in the next major release. Broadwell, Kaby Lake and Skylake-W are discontinued. Skylake-SP and Skylake-D got a 9.x extension in KB 428874. Cascade Lake, EPYC 7001/7002, Coffee Lake and Denverton are deprecated. The exact rows, CPUID values and how to read esxcli hardware cpu list are in the CPU support page and the Skylake page.
3. NICs, HBAs and drivers: ESX 9 deprecated devices
KB 391170 lists 487 devices as Restricted (they work, but get no new features and only best-effort fixes) and 1,137 as End of Life. ESX 9.0 doesn’t claim End of Life devices at all, so a host can upgrade cleanly and come up without its storage controller or uplinks. Search your VID:DID in the ESX 9.0 deprecated devices table before the upgrade, not after.
The VCF Installer has a 10 GbE minimum NIC speed check. In a lab you can work around it (see the minimal VCF 9.0 lab). In production, a NIC that fails it isn’t a valid design.
4. vSAN ESA: certified NVMe and a fresh HCL database
vSAN ESA has its own BCG view. Each NVMe device must be ESA-certified for the release, or the server must be an ESA ReadyNode. Broadcom KB 326717 lists the component changes allowed in an ESA ReadyNode (CPU, storage device, memory, NIC, boot device), as long as the replacement is itself listed.
The local copy of the HCL database is a separate check, and it fails more often than the hardware does. vCenter, SDDC Manager and the VCF Installer each keep their own all.json. The Installer and SDDC Manager treat a copy older than 90 days as an error. The error text is the same as for uncertified disks (“No vSAN ESA certified disks found on the ESXi Host”), so check the database date first. The offline update for all three places is in vSAN HCL DB offline update.
Let vSphere Lifecycle Manager check the cluster
On a vSAN cluster managed by a vLCM image, the cluster’s hardware compatibility check compares the vSAN storage controllers and disks, including firmware, against the vSAN HCL. Firmware is validated only when the image includes a firmware add-on from the vendor’s Hardware Support Manager. If “Prevent remediation if hardware compatibility issues are found” is enabled, a finding blocks remediation (KB 412988). PowerCLI exposes the same check:
Get-LcmHardwareCompatibility -Cluster (Get-Cluster 'wld01-cl01')This covers only what vSAN uses. It doesn’t replace checks 1–3 for the server, CPU and NICs.
Labs: what you can and cannot work around
| Blocker | Supported fix | Lab-only option |
|---|---|---|
| HCL DB older than 90 days | Upload a fresh all.json (KB 412606, KB 315556) | Not needed |
| NVMe not ESA-certified | Certified devices, vSAN OSA or external storage | vSAN ESA hardware mock VIB (details) |
| NIC slower than 10 GbE | Faster NICs | Installer validation bypass (minimal lab) |
| Discontinued CPU | New hardware, or stay on 8.x until its End of General Support | RPQ/TQ for software-only support via the account team (KB 428874) |
Sources
- Broadcom Compatibility Guide
- Broadcom KB 318697: CPU Support Deprecation and Discontinuation in VCF Releases
- Broadcom KB 326717: Supported changes in a vSAN ESA ReadyNode
- Broadcom KB 412606: VCF 9 Installer vSAN HCL DB older than 90 days
- Broadcom KB 412988: vLCM remediation blocked by hardware compatibility issues
- PowerCLI: Get-LcmHardwareCompatibility