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mx2k
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Contributor

ESXi 6.0 - No Network Adapter found w. RTL8111B even with proper drivers added to ISO

Hello Community,

I currently have the task to evaluate several hypervisors for upcoming virtualization for parts of our IT. For testing, I only have old office pc's based on consumer hardware available, namely a Core2Duo, 2GB RAM, Gigabyte EP35-DS3 board, with a RTL8111B onboard NIC.

Being aware that this NIC is not officially supported anymore in ESXi 6.0, I checked the internet and found some tutorials on how to add the missing network driver.

There is this tutorial, and I have seen many references to it, so it is supposed to work.

VMWare ESXi 5.5 - Adding RealTek and Atheros Network Card Drivers - Version 2.0 ~ TechyGeeksHome.co....

I fetched all required software referenced in the tutorial, but adapted to ESXi 6 (as tutorial is for 5.5) which is:

ESXi 6.0u1 Bootimage from VMware.com: VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.0.0.update01-3029758.x86_64.iso

ESXi Customizer referenced in the tutorial: VMware Front Experience: ESXi-Customizer

NIC drivers, tried those: https://vibsdepot.v-front.de/wiki/index.php/Net55-r8168‌ and/or http://www.techygeekshome.info/tghdownloads/VMWare/VMWareVIBPack.zip

The ESXi customizer tool adds the drivers and creates me a new ISO to burn with no hassle and not a single error message. But the result is still the same, ESXi installer does not detect the NIC and installation breaks at this step. Anyone please advise how exactly I'm supposed to get the RTL8111B drivers included in my ESXi 6 installation/boot image, so the NIC is detected and I can finally setup the ESXi hypervisor server?

In an additional trial to get the NIC detected, I have added literally all network driver .vib's I could find on Google. Even with that added, it does not detect a network interface.

Thanks in advance, appreciate any help to resolve the encountered issue!

Greetings,

mx2k

Side Question: Why does VMware strip NIC drivers from their boot/install image?  I don't see the reason to not support any older or consumer NIC. Does VMware really have to complicate things like they do with ESXi 6? For Example, MS Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 includes the Realtek drivers and setup was done with no hassle.

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