ESXi 5.5 ASUS H97M Plus, Intel I218-V "No Network Adapters" Error

[Xerloq]

Hello all!

I'm experimenting with ESXi on my home computer, but keep running into the "No Network Adapters" error, which I understand is because the 5.5 default drivers don't support the Intel I218-V on my Asus H97M-Plus motherboard.

I've looked through these forums and others, and understand that I can use the ESXi Customizer v2.7.2 to add the Intel drivers. The latest version I can find in a .VIB file is net-e1000e-2.3.2.x86_64 which don't seem to work. The latest version I can fine on Intel's site is e1000e-3.0.4. I've tried using the Customizer to insert that version without success.

Also, I'm trying to run ESXi from a bootable USB drive which I create from the ISO using Rufus-1.4.9

My system specs are:

Asus H97M-Plus

Intel 4790S

32GB DDR3-1600 RAM

What's the next step?

Thanks,

[donovake]

SUCCESS.....  Thank You so much !   ESXi5.x_custom.iso on dropbox worked !  

Sorry I have no idea why your video isn't working when using SSD drive for ESXi5.x.

        Kevin

[RaychChan]

Hi,

I am having same issue with ASUS H97-Plus. Can I have a copy of your customized iso?

Many Thanks!

Ray

[AllanBT]

Hi Jonas,

I have same issue about the I217-V driver.

Is it possible to get you self build ISO file.

Best regards

Allan Bang.

[Terrorflynn]

Hello guys,

Sure, remember that this is a customized ISO from the orignal, trial version. Feel free to share it.

Also, if you manage to install it but not to boot it after the installation, try reinistalling it with bootoption "bootwithmbr".

Thats an option via the Boot options, after you choose your boot media (pref. USB) press Shift + O (not zero). There should be a syntax named runweazle or something like that, the only thing that you want to do is add a space and typ in bootwithmbr.

Here is the customized ISO for you guys.

Dropbox - ESXi-5.x-Custom.iso

Sorry for my bad english, its not my native language.

Also, feel free to contact me if you have any questions, I will try to help you the best I can.

Regards,

Jonas

[RaychChan]

Jonas,

Thank you so much for sharing! It works perfectly with my H97 Plus. Please note I didn't get it work to use [Shift]+O to enable MBR. However my ESX host can reboot successfully. I installed it on an USB 3.0 hard disk and manage to select it as the first boot device. It works so far so good. I will give a try with USB stick later.

Thanks for your help once again!!

Ray

[Terrorflynn]

Cheers, Im glad it worked out for you.

Regards,

Jonas

[BatmanPPC]

@GLRoman

Thank you for your work. If you should do a newer build, could you look into re-adding support for 82579V?

PCI ID: 8086:1503

[jjohnson77]

Hello,

Currently I have an issue with the Intel 82579LM that is on a Dell T5600 Workstation. I built an updated ISO 5.5U2_201410004 with the ESXi Customizer script and it downloaded and install your  3.1.0.2-glr vib with no issues. But If I try to boot that disc on the T5600 it gives me no NICS detected. Now my previous custom ISO I made that I manually went and found drivers to test and slip into the 5.5U1 still works just fine but I checked and it net-e1000e 2.32.  In your 3.1.0.2 did the id for the 82579LM get dropped? I am more than willing to test new vib. Thanks for the help

This is where I got my original driver.

ESXi 5.1 U1 Whitebox Adventures | SnowVM Blog

[GLRoman]

To get support for the 82579V, you can try the following:

1. Unpack the VIB

2. Edit the e1000e.map and add the following line:

  regtype=linux,bus=pci,id=8086:1503 0000:0000,driver=e1000e,class=network

3. Edit the e1001e.ids file and add the following line:

  1503  82579V Gigabit Network Connection (Test)

4. Repackage the VIB

5. Load the VIB and reboot your host

Since I do not have an 82579V, I cannot test this.

[mrmin]

I really appreciate your work, can you please reupload the iso ? It's not aviable anymore.

Thank you for your time.

[Terrorflynn]

Hi,

Of course, here it is.

Dropbox - ESXi-5.x-Custom.iso

Let me know how I did, hehe.

Regards,

Jonas

[levispears]

Wanted to pass on a big thank you for your efforts - I have spent most of today working to get the two onboard NICs on my new whitebox system running (Supermicro MBD-X10SLL-F-O server board).  The onboard NICs are Intel I210-AT and Intel I217-LM.  The 210 was recognized after pulling down the current driver updates for 5.5 U2 from VMWare, but the 217 was not. Why SuperMicro decided to mix and match NICs on the board is another topic for discussion. I equip the systems with add-in Intel GbE LAN cards (82574L and I350) to get to a total of 6 interfaces (storage network, etc) so I had supported interfaces to work with rather than being completely out of the water.  As a quick note, I was able to load these directly to ESXi 5.5 using the VMWare management appliance and esxcli.  Steps were:

1) Upload your offline bundle (attached) to an available datastore through the VI client (or pscp, etc)

2) From the esxcli, (if remote, use the vifptarget -s command to specify the ESX host), run esxcli software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore-name/folder/offline-bundle-name.zip

3) Enter ID / password if prompted (or not using fpauth)

4) Read error message about acceptance level for package being community with current profile set to partner, and figure out how to modify that

5) esxcli software acceptance set --level CommunitySupported

6) Re-run software vib install command

7) Reboot

😎

Thanks again - community efforts like this are awesome to see!

Regards,

Levi

[VIR2AL3X]

Hello GLRoman - great job on the custom VIB.  I have used it with my 82579V adapter and it does work but I experience intermittent drops.  I took your advice and attempted to extract the VIB and modify as per your post.  After repackage, I tried to install but it did not work and gave an error to the effect that it could not be found.  Would it be possible for you to modify your VIB to include support for the 82579 adapter and upload here for me?  I will gladly test it out and let you know if that helps to correct my problem.  Thanks much!

[cmcallen]

Here is a version of GLRoman's driver, with the package metadata updated to indicate support for the two missing adapters -- 82579LM (Device ID 1502) and 82579V (Device ID 1503).  Not sure why just those two were missing; everything else from the 3.1.0.2 sources was already there.

I've verified that this works for the 82579LM (without any issues, as far as I can tell).  I don't have anything with an 82579V to use for validation.

Many thanks again to GLRoman for navigating the byzantine process of actually getting these drivers built for VMware.  We're lucky to have such great community members who are willing to jump in and pick up the slack!

[VIR2AL3X]

Excellent cmcallen! I will try this right away as I have an 82579V (Device ID 1503).  I will report back if I have any or no issues.  But just to note, using GLRoman's VIB did work for this NIC i would just experience intermittent drops so I hope this will now resolve that since it has the metadata updated.  thanks again

Edit: So far working flawlessly! thanks again and great work.  I will report back after a few days of testing.

[BatmanPPC]

Thank you so much. This driver build is working for both 82579LM and 82579V. I'll be putting both through some heavy load this weekend.

[solitech]

Is there any way to get a ESXi5.5_I218V_z97 ? Ihave  a Asus Z97 and i already have server 2012 installed but when i try to install ESXI5.X i get No network has been detected Error

Since i done have ESXI installed then i can not create a .VIB file , could somebody help me to either customize ISO file or create VIB file.

None of FTP or Dropbox wokr

Any help would be appreciated .

[solitech]

Is there any way to get a ESXi5.5_I218V_z97 , please

[inky613]

Terrorflynn Got an updated dropbox link?

[colin1983]

Great job.Thanks.

I also try to build the driver with the latest source. But there were some errors i cann't fix.(the same to the post:Re: ESXi 5.5 ASUS H97M Plus, Intel I218-V "No Network Adapters" Error )

So can you share the source for us.

Thank you so much.