VMware Cloud Community
royhills
Contributor
Contributor

Does ESXi 5 support the Intel 82579 network adapter?

I'm considering using an ASUS sandy bridge motherboard as the basis for an ESXi VMware server. Some of the ASUS MBs have the Intel 82579 Ethernet adapter, while others have a Realtek adapter.

Does anyone know if ESXi 5 supports the Intel 82579 Ethernet adapter? If it does, I'll get one of the MBs with that adapter, otherwise I might as well get a cheaper one with the Realtek adapter and install an Intel network card.

I've read that ESXi 4.1 doesn't support the Intel 82579, but I'm hoping ESXi 5 will have a later version of the Intel e1000 driver that includes support for that chipset.

I can't find anything on the HCL, but that may be because the Intel adapters are listed by name rather than by chipset.

15 Replies
idle-jam
Immortal
Immortal

you might want to check vmware hcl's for list of supported network card: http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php

Reply
0 Kudos
a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

I would probably go with the cheaper board and make sure I get a NIC which is known as working (see e.g. http://www.vm-help.com//esx40i/esx40_whitebox_HCL.php or http://ultimatewhitebox.com/). Also make sure the hard disk controller/chipset is supported. Most issues with Whiteboxes are related to these two components (disk controller and NIC)

André

Reply
0 Kudos
aenea201110141
Contributor
Contributor

Been there...there is not a driver for the 82579, there is, however, a Realtek 8111 driver.

Reply
0 Kudos
fidz
Contributor
Contributor

Does anyone know if VMware are likely to support this network adapter? Is it worth waiting for the next set of patches?

Reply
0 Kudos
sloncek
Contributor
Contributor

I'm currently running ESXi 4.1 on a system with intel's DQ67SW motherboard (with this network adapter) using a community-provided driver. Hopefully VMware can add official support soon!

Reply
0 Kudos
jameswu20111014
Contributor
Contributor

The answer is "NO".

Because I am having the same problem. ESXi 5.0 doesn't recognize Intel 82579V.

Reply
0 Kudos
satya1
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

hi

I got the chip set number with supporting OS .

  • E1000 — An emulated version of the Intel 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet NIC. A  driver for this NIC is not included with all guest operating systems.  Typically Linux versions 2.4.19 and later, Windows XP Professional x64  Edition and later, and Windows Server 2003 (32-bit) and later include  the E1000 driver.

Reply
0 Kudos
BigStone88
Contributor
Contributor

Officially I cannot see that the ESXi 5 support the intel NIC chip but unofficially I found this link saying it the ESXi 5 build of drivers batch version is something like 1.2... these guys uploaded version 1.3 and it seemed to have resolved the issue of not detecting the NIC when installing. Check it out and hope this helps. http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1607992%20http://www.vm-help.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=11181#p...

Reply
0 Kudos
sloncek
Contributor
Contributor

The driver you're talking about is for ESXi v4.1

It will be very difficult (if not impossible) to produce one for ESXi 5 unless VMware releases the source code for their existing e1000e driver included with ESXi 5. Once the source code is out, we can make the necessary modifications and recompile it.

btw...they're supposed to release this source code (under the GPL)

Reply
0 Kudos
difubo
Contributor
Contributor

Any word on this? I am planning to buy a P8Z68-V PRO board that has this NIC. If I know that I will have some supprt from vmware coming soon, it will be easier to make that decision.

Reply
0 Kudos
sloncek
Contributor
Contributor

Reply
0 Kudos
satya1
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

difubo wrote:

Any word on this? I am planning to buy a P8Z68-V PRO board that has this NIC. If I know that I will have some supprt from vmware coming soon, it will be easier to make that decision.

My suggestion is go for that lan NIC card already which is working fine,else you will move hear to there for support.

its good news vmware will support but dont have specific time frame .

Yours,

Satya

Reply
0 Kudos
sloncek
Contributor
Contributor

Reply
0 Kudos
JHP_1337
Contributor
Contributor

The simplest way to add the driver Intel 82579 LM to a ESXi 5 Installation CD is to use the ESXi-Customizer from the following page. By the way you can get the driver on this site too.

Just take a look at here :

http://www.ivobeerens.nl/2011/12/13/vmware-esxi-5-whitebox-nic-support/

JesseG2
Contributor
Contributor

JHP's suggestion to use the process on this link worked for me getting my Intel 82579V to work with the latest 5.5 build available today.

http://www.ivobeerens.nl/2011/12/13/vmware-esxi-5-whitebox-nic-support/

Reply
0 Kudos