Oh…..  how I have searched for this… For hours… really. And to just come across this by chance today. Duh!

Search for a customized bundle for HP hardware and it is very easy to find.

Try the same search for IBM – no…….

My frustration has been expressed on Twitter a number of times – because this is not the way it should be.

Is there a way to create a an offline VIB from a vendor customized ISO #bah #IBM

— Maish Saidel-Keesing (@maishsk) June 7, 2012

I would like to thank Darryl Miles for his post IBM’s customized ESXi 5.0 FAQ’s – and just by chance – I see that he had another post about the VIB’s IBM VIBs for VMware ESXi 4.1U2 and 5.0 – which I had never noticed before.

Thank You!! Thank You!! Thank You!!

1. Package Contents  =================================================================
This is a VMware ESXi patch for IBM IMM CIM providers. The following CIM providers are included:

fupb                  5.01-7.170
concretejob           500-2ACE12AUS
filetrans             500-2ACE12AUS
fwupdate              500-2ACE12AUS
hwckvm                500-ESXI01ACN
immpassthru           500-2ACE12AUS
pciinfo               500-PRIVATE
soibms                500-ESXI01ACN
ilfu              500-1.01.20120504
brcmfwup          500-1.00.20120507

2. Hardware Support =================================================================
The bundle can be applied to the following servers:

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/info/x86servers/serverproven/compat/us/

3. OS Support
===================================================================
The bundle can be applied on the following OS platforms:

    * VMware ESXi 5.0u1 build 623860

4. Additional Notes ===================================================================
1. This IBM bundle only includes the providers created by IBM.
2. ilfu/brmfup have no added value without LSI and Broadcom providers installed.

After the bundle is installed on ESXi system, IBM ToolsCenter UpdateXpress System Packs Installer can be used to upgrade ESXi system, or to update firmware of IMM, uEFI, pDSA and FPGA. IBM ToolsCenter Dynamic System Analysis can be used to get information of IBM IMM and other hardware devices.

The links he provided there did not really work for me – IBM’s search engine did not find what I wanted. Here are the correct links (you will need an IBM ID to download) – I did not find any differences between the models – so here are the links to each package

IBM Fix Central - IBM CIM Providers for VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.0u1

IBM Fix Central - IBM CIM Providers for VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.0

IBM Fix Central - IBM CIM Providers for VMware vSphere Hypervisor 4.1 U2

This is what is inside the package that you download.

And the bundle itself contains

One last request to IBM. Please make this available as a depot so that it can be added to Update Manager and the CLI tools. PLEASE!!!

Perhaps I should just create my own depot….. (but I do not know how legal that is…)