Should I install vanilla ESXi or the Dell customised version on a new cluster of R620

Pretty much as the title says, clearly there a pros from having the Dell customisations but what are the cons? Will it still work with VMware Update Manager and similar. This is for a cluster of many many servers all running on the same revision of Dell R620 servers.

Solution 1:

Either will be fine but the Dell one may have slightly more management instrumentation data such as temperature probes etc. If you can I'd go with the Dell version but don't sweat it if you don't.

Solution 2:

Yes, it is very reasonable to do so.

Update Manager will be still functional with having custom DELL ISO as base OS install, even more I just had to add 6 new ESXi 5.1 Dell R820 machines and just for a try the vanilla ESXi 5.1 ISO install did not work, the Dell hardware could not recognize that iso as bootable. Worked with custom Dell ISO 5.1U1A01 just fine. So you should be allright, also 5.1 ESXi hosts coexist just fine with 5.0 ones in the cluster.