HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9. Supported ESXi versions: 6.0, 6.5, 6.7. 7.0: Limited support (deprecated drivers). 8.0: NOT LISTED.
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.”
A Reddit thread from six months ago. Title: “Running ESXi 8 on DL360 Gen9 – success?” The top comment: “Works fine for a homelab. Don’t do this in production unless you hate sleeping.”
He drafted an email to the CFO, to his boss, and to the project manager. No jargon. No blame. Just truth: hp proliant dl360 gen9 vmware compatibility
The DL360 Gen9. A workhorse. Not the youngest stallion in the stable—that honor belonged to the Gen10 and Gen11—but reliable. Mark had deployed dozens of these in his earlier days. They were the diesel engines of the data center: loud, hot, and unkillable. But that was with vSphere 6.5, maybe 6.7. Now, his directive was clear: “Build for the next five years. Use vSphere 8.”
He typed the model into the compatibility matrix. The page loaded slowly, as if hesitating to deliver bad news.
Mark leaned back. The refurbished Gen9s were a bargain—$800 each instead of $5,000. The CFO had practically hugged him. But now, reality. HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9
He opened three more tabs:
Subject: DL360 Gen9 + VMware 8 – Compatibility risk
The four Gen9 servers cannot run vSphere 8 with full driver support. They will likely boot. They will likely fail unpredictably under load. Options: Out-of-tree driver for the Smart Array P440ar
The HP support matrix. It confirmed the Gen9’s last supported vSphere version was 6.7 U3—end of general support 2022.
1. Run vSphere 6.7 (end of support 2022) – security risk, compliance fail. 2. Run vSphere 7.0 (ends 2025) – possible but driver instability reported on the P440ar controller. 3. Return the Gen9s, pay restocking, buy Gen10s – extra $12k, but supported until 2029. 4. Use the Gen9s for non-production (dev/test, backup target) and buy new hosts for prod.