This may be a simple solution but I am failing to find resolution. Running ESX 4.0 on Dell R710 with a quad-port NIC on Motherboard and quad-port NIC in PCI1, powered down the system to add a second quad-port NIC in PCI2 (same brand and vendor as first), powered system back up, but did not have the new NICs plugged into anything. Brought vCenter up but the second quad-port NIC is not see by ESX but can be seen when I do a lspci | grep "Ethernet". Esxcfg-nics -l does not show the new NIC either as I am assuming it will only show those NICs known or used by ESX. Is there a way to have the system reload the drivers without rebooting for the "Unknown device" NIC ports and allow them to be seen by ESX? If not, do the ports have to be plugged into a switch or network device for the ESX to acknowledge that they exist inorder to utilize them?
Output from commands:
# lspci | grep "Ethernet"
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5709 1000Base-T (rev 20)
01:00.1 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5709 1000Base-T (rev 20)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5709 1000Base-T (rev 20)
02:00.1 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5709 1000Base-T (rev 20)
06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 10e8 (rev 01)
06:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 10e8 (rev 01)
07:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 10e8 (rev 01)
07:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 10e8 (rev 01)
0a:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82575GB Gigabit Network Connection (rev 02)
0a:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82575GB Gigabit Network Connection (rev 02)
0b:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82575GB Gigabit Network Connection (rev 02)
0b:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82575GB Gigabit Network Connection (rev 02)
# esxcfg-nics -l
Name PCI Driver Link Speed Duplex MAC Address MTU Description
vmnic0 01:00.00 bnx2 Up 1000Mbps Full 00:24:e8:80:a4:15 1500 Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5709 1000Base-T
vmnic1 01:00.01 bnx2 Up 1000Mbps Full 00:24:e8:80:a4:17 1500 Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5709 1000Base-T
vmnic10 0b:00.00 igb Up 1000Mbps Full 00:1b:21:41:64:f4 1500 Intel Corporation 82575GB Gigabit Network Connection
vmnic11 0b:00.01 igb Up 1000Mbps Full 00:1b:21:41:64:f5 1500 Intel Corporation 82575GB Gigabit Network Connection
vmnic2 02:00.00 bnx2 Up 1000Mbps Full 00:24:e8:80:a4:19 1500 Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5709 1000Base-T
vmnic3 02:00.01 bnx2 Up 1000Mbps Full 00:24:e8:80:a4:1b 1500 Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5709 1000Base-T
vmnic8 0a:00.00 igb Up 1000Mbps Full 00:1b:21:41:64:f0 1500 Intel Corporation 82575GB Gigabit Network Connection
vmnic9 0a:00.01 igb Up 1000Mbps Full 00:1b:21:41:64:f1 1500 Intel Corporation 82575GB Gigabit Network Connection
