Broadcom BCM57781 Driver for ESXi 5

[ilovegrimby]

How do I download a specific driver for the Broadcom BCM57781 NIC for ESXi 5 from the "driver rollup 2"

In another thread (http://communities.vmware.com/message/2008482) a guy/gal was having the same problem I am. The solution seemed to be to download the individual Broadcom driver from http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-50-driver-rollup2-release-notes.html and add it to an install iso using ESXi Customizer. The only problem is that for the life of me I can't figure out how to download the individual driver VID file for the BCM57781.

In the other thread, it was reported that this method worked perfectly, but no specific instructions were given. I would be eternally grateful if someone could enlighten me on this subject.

Thank you for your time,

John

[ilovegrimby]

I figured it out

[terran2k]

would be nice if you'd say what you did?

[Drew954]

I found this on the internet, perhapse it will help people: http://loadingsysadmin.wordpress.com/2012/05/09/the-broadcom-bcm57781-asrock-z77-extreme-4-and-you/

Just incase the site ever disappears:

The Broadcom BCM57781, ASRock Z77 Extreme 4, and You

Something that was a bit of a bummer when I fired up ESXi 5.0 on the ASRock Z77 Extreme4 was that the onboard NIC didn’t work right away. I was going to use a Intel Gigabit NIC anyway but why not see if there was a way to get the onboard Broadcom BCM57781 NIC working? I don’t plan on using dual NICs but it might be useful in the future, so why not?

ESXi 5.0 Driver Rollup 2 seems to break support for the onboard SATA ports (at least the ones controlled by the Intel chipset) which is the reason why we’re starting from scratch and injecting our own drivers. Rollup 2 does include the Broadcom driver so you can choose to go straight to that if you don’t need onboard SATA support.

So after a day of messing around with different drivers and versions of ESXi, I’m happy to report that you can get it working if you follow the steps below.

1) Download ESXi 5.0 Update 1, ESXi Customizer and the Broadcom driver (newer version of the Broadcom driver here; thanks Simon!)

2) Extract ESXi Customizer and the Broadcom driver to a directory of your choosing

3) Run the file called ESXi-Customizer.cmd located in your ESXi Customizer directory

4) In the first field, select your ESXi 5.0 Update 1 ISO you downloaded earlier

5) In the second field, change the file type filter to Offline Bundles (*.zip), browse to the Broadcom driver directory, and select tg3-3.120h.v50.2-offline_bundle-547149.zip

6) In the third field, select the directory you would like to save the final ISO to

7) Check the Create a (U)EFI-bootable ISO (ESXi 5.0 only) box before clicking Run! to create the new ESXi 5.0 ISO

😎 After ESXi Customizer does its thing, you’ll end up with an ISO image of ESXi 5.0 with Update 1, Broadcom driver support and non-broken onboard SATA ports. Burn it to a disc and you’re done!

Comments:

Thanks for this. Note these is a newer version of the ESXi packaged Broadcom driver: v3.123b / April 03, 2012 at https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?downloadGroup=DT-ESXi50-Broadcom-tg3-3123bv501&productId=...
(as compared to the link above which is v3.120h / October 24, 2011). I’ve just installed this version of the Broadcom drivers on my ASRock X77 Extreme 4 and all appears to be fine (I actually used the VMware PowerCLI and Image Builder but the overall result is similar).

[Drew954]

I downloaded the above driver package and installed it on my server using the esxcli software vib install -v {VIBFILE} command. Worked like a charm!

[lufegoec]

Thanks  a lot, I could use this tool with Dell M620 Blade. this Blades has Broadcom BCM57810 and Esxi 5.1.

lufegoec.