Add Network Drivers To Esxi 6 Web
Background / Problem I have two new servers (Dell R720 & Dell R520) that I plan to install ESXi onto. During the VMWare Hypervisor installation, I'm told that no network adapters exist.
I had several folks ask me about an updated USB 3.0 Ethernet Driver for ESXi 6.5, similiar to what I had created for ESXi 5.5 and 6.0. There were some changes that came with ESXi 6.5 and thanks to Songtao, I was able to build a new driver. For those of you who are not familiar with this particular driver, I highly recommend you give this article here a read before proceeding any further. If you are interested in Realtek driver for ESXi 6.5, be sure to check out Jose's blog here for more info.
UPDATE (02/12/19) - A new VMware Native Driver for USB-based NICs has just been released for ESXi 6.5/6.7, please use this driver going forward. If you are still on ESXi 5.5/6.0, you can continue using the existing driver but please note there will be no additional development in the existing vmklinux-based driver.
UPDATE (04/23/18) - For folks who plan to upgrade or install ESXi 6.7, you can continue using the 6.5 driver. I've had several folks reach out and share there have not been any issues and upgrades will preserver the USB NIC driver or you can perform a fresh install and follow the steps below.
To to use this new driver for ESXi 6.5, there are some additional steps that is required. Below are the instructions on how to install this on an ESXi 6.5 host.
Step 0 - Download the ESXi 6.5 USB Ethernet Adapter Driver VIBor ESXi 6.5 USB Ethernet Adapter Driver Offline Bundleandupload it to your ESXi host.
Step 1 - If you are upgrading from an existing ESXi 5.5 or 6.0 environment, the first thing you will want to do is uninstall the old driver by running the following command (specify the correct name of the driver):
esxcli software vib remove -n vghetto-ax88179-esxi60u2
Step 2 - Install the VIB by running the following ESXCLI command to install:
esxcli software vib install -v /vghetto-ax88179-esxi65.vib -f
Step 3 - Next, you will need to disable the USB native driver to be able to use this driver. To do so, run the following command:
esxcli system module set -m=vmkusb -e=FALSE
Step 4 - Lastly, for the changes to go into effect, you will need to reboot your ESXi host. Once your system has rebooted, it should now automatically load the USB Ethernet driver and you should see your USB Ethernet Adapter as shown in the screenshot below.
Step 5 - ESXi does not natively support USB NIC and upon a reboot, the USB NICs are not picked up until much later in the boot process which prevents them from being associated with VSS/VDS and their respective portgroups. To ensure things are connected properly after a reboot, you will need to add something like the following in /etc/rc.local.d/local.sh which re-links the USB NIC along with the individual portgroups as shown in the example below.
2 | esxcfg-vswitch-Mvusb0-p'Management Network'vSwitch0 |
You will also need to run /sbin/auto-backup.sh Whdload kickstarts. to ensure the configuration changes are saved and then you can issue a reboot to verify that everything is working as expected.
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Background / Problem
- I have two new servers (Dell R720 & Dell R520) that I plan to install ESXi onto.
- During the VMWare Hypervisor installation, I'm told that no network adapters exist.
- Upon checking, I realized that the Broadcom NetXtreme I drivers are required additionally
- I have obtained the Broadcom driver software bundle from VMWare's web site
- I have installed PowerCLI on my desktop in case I will need it.
Question
Most ESXi guides describe doing this on a server that's already been set up once, but I am installing ESXi on these boxes for the first time.
How do I properly get these network card drivers into the installation process?
I am under the impression that I may need to configure a custom installation package that includes these drivers (and use PowerCLI to do this) -- if so, how do I best go about doing this?
Which version of ESXi are you trying to install. I think the drivers for those are now included in 5.1 (I might be wrong though).
Alternatively, you can try to use the Dell customized build of ESXi ISO to install VMWare and see if those include the required drivers you need.
Make this easy on yourself - get the Dell-provided ESXi images. Those should have all the hardware things you might need.
Another way that can work:
- Download the offline software bundle for the NetXtreme I cards from VMWare.
- Download the ESXi Customizer software
- Extract ESXi customizer
- Run ESXi customizer as an administrator.
- Select the ISO file
- Select the .VIB file for the drivers
- Select an output directory
- During the installation, allow ESXi customizer to replace the VIB file
- ESXi Customizer creates a bootable ISO.
- Use the custom ESXi ISO to install.
A huge thanks for these tools as they are the only thing that allowed me to get this done quickly.
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I'm going to wait to see how the Dell ISO works out and then try this one. I'll mark the answer as correct in that order of which one works.
References
- ESXi Customizer Software[VMWare Front Experience]
- VMWare ESXi 5 whitebox NIC support[ivobeerens.nl]
Esxi Add Network Adapter
If you use ESXi 6.0 or ESXi 6.5 or newer, you must use ESXi-Customizer-PS. The Windows desktop app: ESXi-Customizer is deprecated.
ESXi-Customizer-PS is a free tool from the same author that runs under PowerCLI and you can also inject a driver into ISO ESXi install.
Reference: http://www.sysadmit.com/2017/01/vmware-esxi-instalar-driver.html