ESX & Marvell

[E_W_]

Hi,

I'm trying to evaluate vSphere 4.1 (Essentials part, but I suspect the evaluation is for Standard) and am installing ESXi 4.1

(or was it 4.0?) and cannot proceed by the network adapter part.  I have a P5GZ-MX motherboard-system (only available

system at the moment that I can test ESXi for the company) that has an onboard LAN adapter (Marvell 88E8001 PCI  Gigabit/ LAN).

I'm guessing that this isn't a supported adapter since ESXi doesn't detect it?

Is there a custom driver disk that has a driver for this adapter?  There is an option that during ESXi installation,

I get to install drivers.

Does there exist on the VMWare site a Marvell custom driver disk?  Searching for it doesn't seem to find any  hits.

Any clarifications appreciated.

Ed

[rlund]

At a high level, if it doesn't install / see hardware natively, and or is not on the VMware HCL, your out of luck.

However, you could download the eval of VMware workstation, and install inside of that, for testing purposes.

I hope that helps.

Roger Lund

[E_W_]

Hi Roger,

Thanks for the information.  I have VMWorkstation 6.5 so I might give that a go.

I think I've found a link or two that might help me but it looks quite involved/

complicated.

Mind you, I'm a bit confused.  In the Alt-F2 console, when I do a 'lspci -v',

it can tell me I have the Marvel Gigabit network adapter, so during

boot up it detects it.  Does this mean there is something I can do

to get it working?

Thanks

Ed

[MindTheGreg · Accepted solution]

It might be easier to:

1. install a supported NIC in your machine

2. disable the marvell card in the bios

3. Install ESXi

[rlund]

Dunno,

I think do not think it is to bad.

http://www.vladan.fr/vsphere-4-in-vmware-workstation/

http://www.sysprobs.com/vmware-vsphere-4-esxi-4-windows-7-vmware-workstation-7-pc

check those links out.

Roger Lund.

[MindTheGreg]

Roger Lund wrote:

Dunno,

I think do not think it is to bad.

Just wanted to provide a different solution.

[E_W_]

Hi MindTheGreg,

That's what I exactly did.  I ended up buying an Intel GT Adapter and ESXi

recognized it during the network config stage.  Now I have ESXi up running.

Thanks!

Ed

[MindTheGreg]

Awesome, that's great to hear!