NIC physical connection detected but no DHCP

[obviouspseudony]

I'll forgive you folks a bit of newbie baiting here because this is a homebrew first effort setup and I'm using unsupported hardware.

I have installed ESXi 5.5 but the issue is that I have fallen at the next hurdle because I am unable to achieve network connectivity. In the management console the NIC says that it is connected, but it ends up with a self-assigned IP address. If I manually assign an IP address, I am unable to ping other devices on the network.

The system is installed on a Shuttle SZ87R6. I used this guide to get the driver for the Realtek 8111E NIC working - before doing that, the installation would not complete.

The DHCP server is a Netgear CG3700B cable modem/router which has no trouble providing IPs to other devices.

What's the next step to figuring out what's wrong?

[update] forgot to specify, I CAN ping localhost/127.0.0.1

[bayupw]

Hi

Any VLANs configured on ESXi or Netgear?

How many NIC/vmnic are detected?
Make sure you are connecting to the correct vmnic#, connect 1 NIC first if you have multiple NICs.

And also double check on the UTP cables that you are using (straight cable, do not use crossover cable), you can test the cable first with your PC.

[obviouspseudony]

Hi,

There are no VLANs configured on either box.

There are two NICs detected which is the correct number for the mainboard in the SZ87R6.

I am connecting the correct one (vmnic0); it makes no difference if I connect one or both - no IP is ever assigned.

The UTP cable is straight through cat5e.

I know you have to check the obvious :smileysilly:

[obviouspseudony]

Possible different route to solving this - would it be feasible simply to use an older version? I understand that prior to 5.5 ESXi had a lot more drivers for non-commercial grade kit.

My purposes for this are probably very low level and not requiring bells and whistles that the newer versions might come with - I just want to run a handful of VMs to teach myself about configuring proxies/firewalls/VPNs with PFSense, squid etc. Is 5.1 or earlier likely to work?