Dell Optiplex 3050 ESXi 6.5 // no network adapter were detected (Integrated Realtek RTL8111H) network adapter not found

[RKS3N]

Hello experts,

Prologue:

In November 2017 I installed ESXI 6.5 on a DELL Optiplex 3050 with an Patriot Spark SDD.

After three weeks running (one WinS2012R2 VM without any applications running on it) I think the SSD crashed.

Somehow I could still reach the box vie vSphere Client. Also a restart was possible, but it took much longer to get access via vSphere Client again and I couldnt start the VM.

When I connected a screen I got:

I plugged the SSD on a Windows Desktop PC and had delayed access to the SSD. As CDI confirms this SSD isn

But back to the acutal topic

I put a new SSD to the Optiplex and wanted to install the ESXi again, but now I got an error message: Network Adapter not found.

I am very sure I installed it in November with an usual ESXi 6.5 USB stick and I am very surprised now why it doesnt work anymore.

I tried various ISO imgages which I found reffering to my google searches, but nothing worked:

• VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.5.0-4564106.x86_64.iso
• VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.5.0-4564106.x86_64-Dell_Customized-A00.iso
• VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.5.0.update01-5969303.x86_64
• and even: VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.0.0.update02-3620759.x86_64.iso

At one try I got:

I have found blog posts about EXSi customizer and so on. There were all for ESXi 5.0 or 5.5, not for 6.5.

1.) Does anyone of you have an idea why it doesnt work anymore to install ESXi with the normal USB stick? I mean I dont see any connection between changing SSD and the on-board NIC.

2.) Can anyone of please provide an suitable image?

Thanks a lot.

[IT_pilot · Accepted solution]

You can create custom ISO. https://vmexplorer.com/2017/09/23/create-iso-with-esxi-6-0u2-and-realtek-8168-drivers/ 

https://advanxer.com/blog/2017/10/adding-realtek-8168811184118118-based-nics-to-esxi-6-5/

However, the problem may appear again. Support for these network cards is discontinued in version 5.5. Therefore, consider installing another supported card.

[RKS3N]

Thank you very much. Unfortunately I am not very familiar with scripting / coding. But you reply kept me searching on more and solved this issue.

I used the ESXi customizer which is very easy to use (just select ESXi image, select .vib driver package and create a new “customized” ESXi image) from:

https://www.v-front.de/p/esxi-community-packaging-tools.html#download

I used most likely the latest ESXi 6.5 version from vmware.com.

Here I read the package r8168 includes also the driver for 8111:

https://advanxer.com/blog/2017/10/adding-realtek-8168811184118118-based-nics-to-esxi-6-5/

And here I got the offline bundle (.vib file) for r8168:

https://vibsdepot.v-front.de/wiki/index.php/Net55-r8168#Direct_Download_links