Dell R620, ESX 4.1, and Broadcom tg3 driver

[nvalentine_rest]

Hey, everyone.

Can someone point me to information on installing ESX 4.1 on a Dell R620? Apparently the Broadcom tg3 NIC driver is either not present or not the right version on the ESX 4.1 install media as the install bombs out saying it can't find a driver for the NIC. I've scoured both the VMWare and Dell sites trying to find a suitable driver disk but I've not had any luck nor does Google point me in any promising directions.

Thx!

[VirtuallyMikeB]

Howdy!

The Dell custom installation image for ESXi 4.1 Update 2, Embedded and Installable, includes the drivers for the Broadcom tg3, as seen below, taken from the following web pages:

Broadcom Network Adapter Driver Versions

========================================

bnx2  - 2.1.12b.v41.3

bnx2x - 1.70.34.v41.1

bnx2i - 2.70.1k.v41.2

cnic  - 1.11.18.v41.1

*tg3   - 3.123b.v40.1*

Embedded

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/04/DriverDetails/DriverFileFormats?driverID=PR78N

Installable

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/04/DriverDetails/DriverFileFormats?driverID=FRGWY

The Dell customized image includes drivers specific to Dell servers on the ESXi image, so you shouldn't have to add them afterward or create your own custom image.

Cheers,

Mike

http://VirtuallyMikeBrown.com

https://twitter.com/#!/VirtuallyMikeB

http://LinkedIn.com/in/michaelbbrown

[nvalentine_rest]

Hey, Mike.

Thanks for the pointer. Just for kicks, I tried to manually browse to those links and couldn't find them even with some pretty specific searches. The Dell website is, well, unique.

In regards to the tg3 driver that comes with their custom ESXi image, should it work on both ESX and ESXi 4.1? My impression was that these two are very different beasts under the hood with ESXi ditching most of the Linux-y kernel/management domain from ESX. I'll give it a try regardless though.

Any information you have on this one will be appreciated. I'll give the driver a try today and post back here to let everyone know if it worked.

Thx!!

[VirtuallyMikeB]

There's a different custom image for each, both ESX and ESXi 4.1.

UPDATE 3 October 2012: As I was helpfully pointed out by B below, it seems there are no custom Dell ISOs for the classic ESX 4.x even though they're listed in the drop down menu. One can, however, download the individual drivers and load them during a manual installation of classic ESX when prompted to do so.  Follow the instructions on this blog (ignoring the HP server focus, as the solution is the same for either vendor):

http://www.vi-tips.com/2011/02/esx-41-install-error-on-bl460c-g7-nic.html

Cheers,

Mike

Thumbed from my Android

--

Mike Brown

573-433-0872 (Cell)

michael.b.brown3@gmail.com<mailto:michael.b.brown3@gmail.com>

Blog: http://VirtuallyMikeBrown.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/VirtuallyMikeB

LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/michaelbbrown

Message was edited by: VirtuallyMikeB

[Dutch89]

Hi There,

Do you know where the Dell Custom Image is for ESX   4.1  U2  (Classic) ?

Thanks

B

[sparrowangelste]

try this:

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=DELL_ESXI_RECOVERYCD&productId=230