2008 R2 & ESXi 4.1 - Guest NIC drivers

[smackthat]

I searched and understand that ESXi might not see or have drivers for the hardware on the host. This is not my case. ESXi sees my Intel 82576 and 82580, and BCOM NetExtreme drivers...but the guest OS running 2008 R2 doesnt see the drivers. I tried browsing to drivers within VMTools but couldnt find.

I must be having a senior moment, or it's Friday and already 'started' the weekend....please give me some guidance...

-TIA

[Troy_Clavell]

what NIC are you presenting to your W2K8R2 guest, I assume VMXNET3? If you have the VMware tools installed there should be no reason why the guest doesn't see the NIC. You can also try E1000.

[AndreTheGiant]

but the guest OS running 2008 R2 doesnt see the drivers.

VMs do not use the physical NICs, but virtual NICs:

Andre

[jamesbowling]

The VMs will not actually see the physical NIC. When you deploy the VM you deploy a virtual NIC along with it. The default is e1000 but I would recommend using VMXNET3, unless you plan on using something like Fault Tolerance.

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[MakarevichNI]

Double-check what VM has installed virtual network adapter (VM -> Edit settings -> Hardware tab).

[kopper27]

if you already checked VM- Edit Seetings and you see the a NIC there I recommend you to add 2 more just for test one E1000 and other vmxnet this can be done while VM is running