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ladymixy
Contributor
Contributor

Adding second NIC in ESX 4.0 U1

Have a new Dell R710 with onboard 4-port Broadcom NIC. Those four NICs are registered in ESXi 4.0 U1 just fine, and using them great. But the system also has an Intel Gigabit ET NIC Quad card.

According to the HCL, that Intel Card is approved:

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?action=search&deviceCategory=io&productId=1...

Any ideas on how to get ESXi to recognize it? I was hoping to see a total of 8 ports, but am only seeing the onboard 4.

(pulllleeeeeeze don't tell me I should've gotten broadcom, in a windows environment I prefer intel, but I didn't know I'd be going ESXi when I ordered!)

(and at the risk of embarrassing myself I'm going to go reboot one more time to see if I missed anything in BIOS!)

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AntonVZhbankov
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Immortal

Is Intel NIC installed correctly? Does it work with other server? Does Windows see it?


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ladymixy
Contributor
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I don't have any guests set up on this server yet ... so ESXi is the only thing installed.

I did verify that upon bootup I can go in to look around at what things are installed, and in the BIOS I see the four Broadcom NIC ports listed as "embedded" NIC1, NIC2, NIC3, and NIC4. Then for the Intel card I have to go to IRQ\PCI devices, and see all four ports listed in there as Intel NIC1, NIC2, NIC3, and NIC4.

So at this point I have not tried installing different OS to ensure that the card is working correctly ... if it comes to that, I certainly could do so. Thi

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HEXANET
Contributor
Contributor

Hello..

First sorry for my poor english.. i'm french.

So, i've a new R710 with a embedded broadcom quad port and a Intel Gigabite ET Quad port.

I've installed ESXi 4 and i don't see the intel quad port. I've an another intel Gigabite ET quad port but older than the first. When i'll use it, i can see it on the ESXi. I did the test with another new card Intel Gigabite ET and i have the same problem.

I think that it's du to the version of the a chipset MidCom on the card. The version is different.

So i've no solution and it's not a problem of the board nor the ESXi installation but just with the version of the chipset.

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ladymixy
Contributor
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Thanks Hexanet, I think I understand you fine. Thank you for the information! I have not yet tried another network card.

I sort of contacted Dell to inquire about this. When I purchased the server, they told me they were going to be offering Broadcom NICs only, but included this Intel at my request. (oops!) I wonder if the tech team at Dell knew something about this incompatibility. But so far I do not have an aswer.

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HEXANET
Contributor
Contributor

Version of WE-MIDCOM 7412-35 chip on the Intel ET Quad port

functionnal undex ESXi (3.5 & 4): WD911LF1

Not functionnal under ESXi 4 Update 1 : HM932LF1

If Dell give you a solution, please reply to me.

Thank's Smiley Happy

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HEXANET
Contributor
Contributor

Hello.

I have the solution for the INTEL GIGABIT ET QUAD PORT on ESXi 4 U1

Go to http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere4/doc/drivercd/esx40-net-igb_400.1.3.19.12-1.0.4.html and dowload the iso file VMware ESX/ESXi 4.0 Driver CD for Intel 82575 and 82576 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

Burn it on a CD and copy the Intel zip file present on the CD to c:\tmp

On your VCENTER, lauch a CMD windows

Go to c:\program files\vmware\VMWARE VI Remote CLI\BIN

Launch this command :

VIHOSTUPDATE.PL --server

This command will add drivers for you INTEL GIGABIT ET QUAD PORT NIC .

Reboot your host and enjoy it...

Bye.

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bleeuwen123
Contributor
Contributor

I've just installed ESX 4 with the same issue. Try to do the following:

1. Downloaded drivers from the following page: http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/esx_esxi40_intel_82575_82576_dt/ZHcqYmR0QGpidGR3

2. Extracted the iso to disk

3. Copied the files with WinSCP over to the Dell server

4. Logged in the ESX server as root

5. Placed the ESX server in maintenance mode

6. Run “esxupdate -bundle=INT-intel-ladd-ddk-igb-1.3.19.12.1-offline_bundle-185976.zip update”

7. Issued a “shutdown -r now” command

(http://www.bvanleeuwen.nl/faq/?p=356)

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ladymixy
Contributor
Contributor

These suggestions certainly look very very helpful, thank you! I hope to try it over the weekend or the weekend following. Wheneer I do, I will come back in and mark answered!

Thanks!

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patj3
Contributor
Contributor

Had the same problem, found the same solution and also found a way to 'slipstream' the new driver in the install iso.

Maybe it can help you as well.

Slipstream drivers

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bleeuwen123
Contributor
Contributor

Hi ladymixy,

Is your problem solved or do you still have problems?

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ladymixy
Contributor
Contributor

Sorry for not coming back in here to explain, but at the moment I'm still not exactly "fixed." Mainly because I ended up stuck between a rock and a hard place with old failing equipment, so had to make my ESX box "live" before I would have liked to. So now I'm trying to find a convenient time to me and my end users (i.e. Sunday morning at 3am) in which I can make this update.

But I'm highly confident in what you folks posted, enough that I haven't been worrying about it. Just need to find the time to implement. For now running 6 VM's with 4 NIC's, and the machine is so screaming fast that we're not really missing anything by using 4 NICs instead of 8.

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