vSphere Lifecycle Manager automates the process of validating the hardware compliance of hosts and clusters against a selected ESXi version. Hardware compatibility checks ensure that the host or cluster hardware is compliant with the VMware Compatibility Guide (VCG) and vSAN Hardware Compatibility List (vSAN HCL).

Hardware Compatibility Lists

Hardware compatibility lists are lists of hardware certified for use with various vSphere releases. The VCG contains information about server models and I/O devices that are certified for use with particular vSphere releases. Besides VCG, vSAN maintains a separate hardware compatibility list that lists all I/O and networking device controller hardware and the respective firmware versions certified for use with vSAN. The vSAN HCL also contains information about the disk drives that a specific vSphere release supports and the earliest disk drive firmware version certified for use with vSAN.

With vSphere Lifecycle Manager, you can perform the following tasks.
  • Check the hardware compatibility of a single host.
  • Check the hardware compatibility of a vSAN cluster.

In general, hardware incompatibilities do not prevent remediation and are not resolved upon remediation. However, you can configure vSphere Lifecycle Manager to prevent remediation when hardware compatibility issues exist for a cluster. For information about configuring the global vSphere Lifecycle Manager remediation settings, see Configure vSphere Lifecycle Manager Remediation Settings for Clusters or Standalone Hosts that You Manage with a Single Image. For information about configuring the remediation settings for a particular cluster, see Override the Global vSphere Lifecycle Manager Remediation Settings for a Cluster or Host That You Manage with a Single Image.