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Asteroza
Contributor
Contributor

ESXi 6.7 PCIe serial card?

So I recently got stuck with an odd problem.

 

Apparently another department ordered a server and wanted us to install a free standalone ESXi 6.7 setup on it then let them spin up their own VM's in exchange for letting us run some of our VM's on it. That's fine, but then the truth came out, which was that they wanted to use a windows VM for a licensing server migration. Unfortunately, that license is controlled via a serial dongle, and the server that was ordered didn't have a serial port installed. Being standalone with a free license means the usually remote serial stuff is unavailable.

 

The server is a HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen10, and has all open PCIe slots, so my general thought process was picking a PCIe serial card, throwing it into a spare slot, have ESXi detect it, then pass as a virtual serial to the VM, then finally connect the dongle physically. Worst case do PCIe passthru and pass the serial card to the VM.

 

Are there any PCIe serial cards that people recommend currently for ESXi 6.7? I understand that there are some issues with grey market serial chips being used in cheaper cards being problematic, with driver compatibility or poor performance issues.

I suppose an alternative might be a USB-to-serial adapter that ESXi itself would recognize (or worst case pass the USB thru to the VM, though how would one stablely do that?)

 

Any recommended models/vendors for serial access?

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DavoudTeimouri
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

I couldn't find any PCIe Serial I/O device on compatibility guide.

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Davoud Teimouri - https://www.teimouri.net - Twitter: @davoud_teimouri Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teimouri.net/
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Asteroza
Contributor
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Seriously, nobody is using an add in serial card?

 

Is this more a case of, if it worked on 6.0 or 6.5, it's generally safe for 6.7?

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Considines
Contributor
Contributor

It is advisable that customers first of all check with the computer manufacturer that the provided computer qualifies for the specific use and also the required amount of computer slots and slot-types (e.g. PCI, PCIe) are available. We also gladly consult and confirm our customer on the type of use in order to ensure, as far as possible, the success.

My Lowes Life

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