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VMmao
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Install ESXi 5.0 on Dell R810 with Qlogic QLE8152 CNA

Hi,

I'm trying to install ESXi 5.0 on a Dell Poweredge R810 with a Qlogic QLE8152 CNA (and no other network interface connected). The drivers for that particular card aren't in the ESXi default ISO downloaded from the web site, so I downloaded them from the downloads.vmware.com portal. I found two packets: qla2xxx-911.k1.1-472334.zip (for FCoE) and qlge-1.0.0.47-463318.zip (fo network).

If I install default ESXi 5.0 I won't be able to add the drivers (there isn't any other network adapter connected to configure the management interface!), can you help me finding a way to load the drivers inside a customized ESXi 5.0 ISO image?

Thanks

Maurizio

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dvhorvath
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Check out this excellent blog post: http://v-front.blogspot.com/2011/08/anatomy-of-esxi-50-installation-cd-and.html

Wish I could take credit for that, but I just happened to stumble across it. The ESXi-Customizer tool linked at the bottom may be a big help too.

Dave

VMmao
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks Dave, this is what I was looking for! Unfortunately this tool helped me creating the customized ISO (I tried adding just the network driver, the qlge-1.0.0.47-463318) but I didn't solve the issue: when the ESXi boots after the installation the correct module (qlge) is loaded but if I launch esxcfg-nics -l I see the ports down (config on the switches already checked, all ok on that side), maybe there are problems with the driver itself... Is there anybody who already tried Qlogic QLE8152 with ESXi 5.0?

Thanks

Maurizio

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athlon_crazy
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

What i did on ESXi 4.1 IBM Blade:

  • Prepare Linux bootable USB (e.g Slax 6),
  • Download and upload QLAe driver to Slax USB,
  • Proceed with ESXI installation till finished,
  • Reboot host from Slax USB.
  • Copy QLAe driver from Slax USB to any ESXi vfat partition (e.g /var/db),
  • Reboot into ESXi,
  • Locate and install the driver

BTW, I never try this on ESXi5.

http://www.no-x.org
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VMmao
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Contributor

Ok, I think we found what's wrong in our system: the issue is a bug in the driver / switch communication (we have Cisco 5548 switches), take a look at this post on Cisco's forum:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2102059

we had exactly that message on the switch: DCX-No ACK in 100 PDUs.

We tried disablig lldp on the switch ports and the network came up, unfortunately the FCoE part didn't (in fact on cisco documentation you can find this quote "If LLDP is disabled, the VFC will not come online").

We will try contacting Dell to see if they have a new and working version of the ESXi5 driver for the QLE8152.

Bye, thanks

Maurizio

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