HP introduced this "feature" a month ago and no fix... Looks like they're going to leave use to fend for ourselves. I'm currently on HP's ESXi 5.1.0 build and I've been unable to update to any later 5.1 build or 5.5 builds.
I decided to build a custom ISO. I'm testing my freshly upgraded host now, but all looks good. The ESXi-Customizer looks nice but has one critical limitation, the resulting ISO cannot be imported to VUM. I've not used PowerCLI (necessary to build custom images) since sitting through an advanced session at VMworld a few years ago, but I got through it ok. Referenced article 2082027 to get the proper nic driver. After installing PowerCLI, here's the steps I used to build the installer:
Create staging folder, place offline bundles for nic driver and esx installer inside.
1) Add-EsxSoftwareDepot .\VMware-ESXi-5.5.0-Update1-1746018-HP-5.74.27-Jun2014-depot.zip
2) Get-EsxImageProfile (Looking something like "HP-ESXi-5.5.0-Update1-5.74.27")
3) New-EsxImageProfile -CloneProfile "HP-ESXi-5.5.0-Update1-5.74.27" -Name "HP-ESXi-5.5.0-U1-032014-Respin" -AcceptanceLevel CommunitySupported
You'll be prompted for Vendor, just type "Hewlett-Packard"
4) Remove-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile HP-ESXi-5.5.0-U1-032014-Respin -SoftwarePackage misc-cnic-register,net-bnx2,net-bnx2x,net-cnic,scsi-bnx2fc,scsi-bnx2i
5) Export-EsxImageProfile -ImageProfile HP-ESXi-5.5.0-U1-032014-Respin -ExportToBundle -FilePath ./HP-ESXi-5.5.0-U1-032014-Respin.zip
Close and Reopen PowerCLI. I'm not entirely sure this is necessary, but I was having trouble determining if the packages where being removed and added to the proper profile. So I saved my cloned profile and reopened to verify it had removed the broadcomm drivers, it had. Re-open the new profile:
6) Add-EsxSoftwareDepot ./HP-ESXi-5.5.0-U1-032014-Respin.zip
7) Add-EsxSoftwareDepot ./BCM-NetXtremeII-3.0-offline_bundle-1566459.zip
8) Add-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile HP-ESXi-5.5.0-U1-032014-Respin -SoftwarePackage misc-cnic-register,net-bnx2,net-bnx2x,net-cnic,scsi-bnx2fc,scsi-bnx2i
9) Export-EsxImageProfile -ImageProfile HP-ESXi-5.5.0-U1-032014-Respin -ExportToBundle -FilePath ./HP-ESXi-5.5.0-U1-032014-Respin.Final.zip (This is just a backup of the bundle for easy modification)
10) Export-EsxImageProfile -imageprofile HP-ESXi-5.5.0-U1-032014-Respin -ExportToIso -FilePath ./HP-ESXi-5.5.0-U1-032014-Respin.Final.iso
Imported the ISO to VUM, created new Baseline and now I'm able to initiate host remediation. My test host completed successfully and everything looks good. But I wonder what hoops I'll have to jump through next time. I saw someone mention they had troubles with a G7 host, my test host is a G7.