I have a matched pair of BladeCenter E chassis running load balanced web
servers. Several of the blades are running ESXi 4.0.
On one system, I have Copper pass-through modules in both Bay1 and Bay2
and everything in fine. Ethernet connections are seen/available on every
ports.
On the second system, another BladeCenter E, I have a Copper
pass-through module in Bay1 and a 4-port Ethernet module in Bay2. I made
this change because I needed to put NIC0 of individual blades on
different switches. All of the Blades NIC1 go to the same switch so
there was no need for a pass-through there.
The weird thing is, on some blades, I can't see the ports, they are
simply not there, or on, or enabled, I don't know what. But this appears
to only be on ESXi blades, blades running straight Linux for example
seem to be fine.
I don't see anything in the BIOS of those blades, I've replaced the
modules and cables twice in case it was something along those lines but
the same ports always act the same way. I then took a Linux blade and
put it into a slot that ESXi didn't see it's second port on and the
blade can see both. When I put ESXi back in, it cannot see the second
port.
What's going on and how can I fix this? Is it a must to have both Bays
using the same module perhaps?
Mike