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Luke_HC
Contributor
Contributor

ESXi 6.7 U3 and Realtek NICs (RTL8111C and RTL8105E)

Hello guys!

I'm new on VMware world, and I need some help.

I installed ESXi 6.7 U3 but my NICs aren't working correctly.

NIC 1: RTL8111C

0000:02:00.0 Network controller Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [vmnic0]

         Class 0200: 10ec:8168

NIC 2: RTL8105E

0000:03:00.0 Network controller Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller

         Class 0200: 10ec:8136

After some research on the net, I found a driver (net55-r8168) for RTL8111C (10ec:8168) and how to integrate it on ESXi ISO.

It worked well for a couple of hours, then it suddenly disapeared from my system. Couldn't ping my server from my machine, neither ping from the server.

Then I rebooted and it come back... but again, after some time it's gone.

Now I don't know what to do with this two nics.

The RTL8111C don't work well as I said, and I couldn't find any driver for the RTL8105E. The last driver for RTL8105E only work up to ESXi 6.0.

Drivers used:

RTL8111C - net55-r8168 (https://vibsdepot.v-front.de/wiki/index.php/Net55-r8168)

RTL8105E - net-r8101 (https://vibsdepot.v-front.de/wiki/index.php/Net-r8101) - don't even integrate on ESXi 6.7

More info:

[root@srv-esxi:~] esxcli network nic get -n vmnic0

   Advertised Auto Negotiation: true

   Advertised Link Modes: 10BaseT/Half, 10BaseT/Full, 100BaseT/Half, 100BaseT/Full, 1000BaseT/Full

   Auto Negotiation: true

   Cable Type: Twisted Pair

   Current Message Level: 51

   Driver Info:

         Bus Info: 0000:02:00.0

         Driver: r8168

         Firmware Version:

         Version: 8.045.08-NAPI

   Link Detected: true

   Link Status: Up

   Name: vmnic0

   PHYAddress: 0

   Pause Autonegotiate: false

   Pause RX: false

   Pause TX: false

   Supported Ports: TP

   Supports Auto Negotiation: true

   Supports Pause: false

   Supports Wakeon: true

   Transceiver: internal

   Virtual Address: 00:50:56:55:ed:6c

   Wakeon: MagicPacket(tm)

[root@srv-esxi:~] esxcli network nic list

Name    PCI Device    Driver  Admin Status  Link Status  Speed  Duplex  MAC Address         MTU  Description

------  ------------  ------  ------------  -----------  -----  ------  -----------------  ----  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

vmnic0  0000:02:00.0  r8168   Up            Up             100  Full    00:e0:4c:68:26:4d  1500  Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller

Could someone help me?

Thanks!

============================

This logs may help....

vmkernel.log

2020-01-08T20:42:36.066Z cpu0:2097208)NetqueueBal: 5035: vmnic0: device Up notification, reset logical space needed

2020-01-08T20:42:36.066Z cpu0:2097208)NetPort: 1580: disabled port 0x2000002

2020-01-08T20:42:36.066Z cpu3:2099953)NetSched: 654: vmnic0-0-tx: worldID = 2099953 exits

2020-01-08T20:42:36.066Z cpu0:2097208)Uplink: 11689: enabled port 0x2000002 with mac 00:e0:4c:68:26:4d

2020-01-08T20:42:36.066Z cpu1:2097208)NetPort: 1580: disabled port 0x2000002

2020-01-08T20:42:36.066Z cpu2:2099954)NetSched: 654: vmnic0-0-tx: worldID = 2099954 exits

2020-01-08T20:42:36.066Z cpu1:2097208)Uplink: 11689: enabled port 0x2000002 with mac 00:e0:4c:68:26:4d

2020-01-08T20:42:37.429Z cpu2:2097571)<6>r8168: vmnic0: link up

2020-01-08T20:42:41.067Z cpu3:2097208)NetqueueBal: 5035: vmnic0: device Up notification, reset logical space needed

2020-01-08T20:42:41.067Z cpu3:2097208)NetPort: 1580: disabled port 0x2000002

2020-01-08T20:42:41.067Z cpu2:2099955)NetSched: 654: vmnic0-0-tx: worldID = 2099955 exits

2020-01-08T20:42:41.067Z cpu3:2097208)Uplink: 11689: enabled port 0x2000002 with mac 00:e0:4c:68:26:4d

2020-01-08T20:42:41.067Z cpu1:2097208)NetPort: 1580: disabled port 0x2000002

2020-01-08T20:42:41.067Z cpu3:2099957)NetSched: 654: vmnic0-0-tx: worldID = 2099957 exits

2020-01-08T20:42:41.067Z cpu1:2097208)Uplink: 11689: enabled port 0x2000002 with mac 00:e0:4c:68:26:4d

2020-01-08T20:42:41.556Z cpu0:2097571)<6>r8168: vmnic0: link up

2020-01-08T20:42:46.628Z cpu1:2097571)<6>r8168: vmnic0: link up

2020-01-08T20:42:49.660Z cpu2:2097571)<6>r8168: vmnic0: link up

2020-01-08T20:42:51.692Z cpu2:2097571)<6>r8168: vmnic0: link up

2020-01-08T20:42:53.723Z cpu2:2097571)<6>r8168: vmnic0: link up

No connection after that... :smileycry:

syslog.log

2020-01-08T20:42:36Z dcbd: [info] Ignoring vmnic0 link state change, no port found

2020-01-08T20:42:36Z dcbd: [info] Ignoring vmnic0 link state change, no port found

2020-01-08T20:42:36Z dcbd: [info] Ignoring vmnic0 link state change, no port found

2020-01-08T20:42:36Z dcbd: [info] Ignoring vmnic0 link state change, no port found

2020-01-08T20:42:36Z dcbd: [info] Ignoring vmnic0 link state change, no port found

2020-01-08T20:42:37Z dcbd: [info] Ignoring vmnic0 link state change, no port found

2020-01-08T20:42:41Z dcbd: [info] Ignoring vmnic0 link state change, no port found

2020-01-08T20:42:41Z dcbd: [info] Ignoring vmnic0 link state change, no port found

2020-01-08T20:42:41Z dcbd: [info] Ignoring vmnic0 link state change, no port found

2020-01-08T20:42:41Z dcbd: [info] Ignoring vmnic0 link state change, no port found

2020-01-08T20:42:48Z dcbd: [info] Ignoring vmnic0 link state change, no port found

2020-01-08T20:42:49Z dcbd: [info] Ignoring vmnic0 link state change, no port found

2020-01-08T20:42:50Z dcbd: [info] Ignoring vmnic0 link state change, no port found

2020-01-08T20:42:51Z dcbd: [info] Ignoring vmnic0 link state change, no port found

2020-01-08T20:42:52Z dcbd: [info] Ignoring vmnic0 link state change, no port found

2020-01-08T20:42:53Z dcbd: [info] Ignoring vmnic0 link state change, no port found

Mensagem editada por: LukeHC

2 Replies
drescheg
Contributor
Contributor

I am running into this same problem with a RTL8111G nic.  Were you able to find a solution?

0 Kudos
peetz
Leadership
Leadership

Greetings,

these are community supported drivers, so nothing that is officially supported, and your chances to find real help here are very limited.

The best thing you can try is to reach out directly to the authors of these drivers (see the Wiki pages for links) and ask them for help.

On the long run you should replace your NICs with models that are officially supported, because starting with 7.0 none of the existing community supported drivers will work, and there won't be any new community developed and supported drivers, because the new native drivers are no longer Open Source.

There are some affordable Intel NICs that are officially supported. Check the VMware HCL.

Regards

Andreas

Twitter: @VFrontDe, @ESXiPatches | https://esxi-patches.v-front.de | https://vibsdepot.v-front.de