HP SPP online update: HPSUM host inventory failed with an error like re-enter the credentials

Lately, I was upgrading HP servers firmware/drivers using HP SPP online upgrade method and for one HP ProLiant server after adding the node to HP SUM inventory when I try to inventory my box, got an inventory error and it asks me to re-enter my credentials while the entered credentials were correct.

Usually when a node is added you must inventory it against the SPP repository so HPSUM could compare and determine what is needed for your box.
When googled about the issue, most of the results pointed out this host seems missing some HPE VIBs that must be on the box prior to attempting to use HP SUM, this was strange as this host was installed using the HPE provided custom ESXi 6.0 U2 ISO image.

Here in order to fix the issue, downloaded and installed the HPE custom ESXi 6.0 U2 image bundle and after that there was no issue with SPP update (as this also installed all missing HP management components).

To upgrade the esxi install using VMware offline update bundle zip use,

 esxcli software vib update -d /vmfs/volumes/…./vmware_update_offline_bundle.zip

There are other ways too to upgrade the esxi host, like installing one of the available profiles in offline update bundle.

To list the installed image profile we can use following cmd,

esxcli software profile get

Now list the available image profile in download VMware update offline bundle,

 esxcli software profile list -d /vmfs/volumes/…./vmware_update_offline_bundle.zip

The output of above cmd would list the available image profiles from the downloaded vmware_update_offline_bundle.zip, note down the name of image profile you want to install, now

 esxcli software profile install -d /vmfs/volumes/…./vmware_update_offline_bundle.zip -p vmware_inage-profile name

This will install/update the desired esxi image profile.

That’s it… J