Just curious if there are any gotchas on upgrading a 5.0 cluster built on with the VMware ISO to 5.1 using the HP Branded ISO? - i dont think it will be a good idea.... and will be supportable.. and nobody will take risk in production.
it is good to have use HP iso, because it has the correct NMI drivers.. for the esx... and it will be tested and certified by the HP, secutiry patches you can use from vmware or you can also use from the hp no issues, but for the first installation.. it is good to use HP.
Basically they are same but, few differences are there, they are related to the drivers side.
there are two types of drivers type for the same hardware.
1- inbox - these drivers are tested, created, coded by the vmware for the hardware and included in the VMware exi iso
2- async - these are the drivers created by the original hardware vendor like emulex/qlogic etc and the OEM guys use those for the rack/blade and the OEM/ISV guys create an iso for the ESXi and they will test and certify for their hardware.
both are same, certain case the vmware version...that is inbox version more compatible and some time async will be more compatable.
its is very hard to tell which one to use.. it is better to use the HP or DELL custom iso image..because they only support the hardware.