VMware Cloud Community
Hypervox
Contributor
Contributor
‎12-09-2013 07:09 AM

Esxi 4.1 - can you install a network card driver without maintenance mode?

Hi everyone,

The title pretty much says it.  I'd like to install an additional network card driver onto esxi 4.1, but everything I've read seems to indicate that I need to be in maintenance mode for this to work.  As I have running vm's I'm trying to get the driver installed ahead of xmas so that my boss can come in and fit the card over the break (which will require the server to be powered off anyway.

Does anyone know if you can install additional network card drivers without going into maintenance mode?

Kind Regards

Hypervox...

Tags (2)
0 Kudos
2 Replies
aravinds3107
Virtuoso
Virtuoso
‎12-09-2013 07:28 AM

Updating a NIC drivers sometime would need a reboot of the host or it will possible network disruption during the update, that's the reason to place the host in MM

If you find this or any other answer useful please consider awarding points by marking the answer correct or helpful |Blog: http://aravindsivaraman.com/ | Twitter : ss_aravind
0 Kudos
Hypervox
Contributor
Contributor
‎12-09-2013 07:34 AM

Hi,

I appreciate that a reboot would be neccesary to use the driver - that's fine, because when the server is taken down for the card to be installed, it gets rebooted.

I thought that VSphere was linux based?  if the network card drivers are modules, it should be possible to put them in place, ready for use after a reboot.  Does anyone know if this is possible?

0 Kudos