Installing new NIC on host

[ScottChapman]

So, I just bought myself a shiny new Intel dual-port gigabit ET card, and installed it into my ESXi 3.5 host.

Do I need to re-install ESXi for it to recognize and use the new card? Or is there something else I need to do?

[Dave_Mishchenko]

You'll just need to plug it in and restart the host. Assuming it is a supported, NIC they should just come up as the next 2 vmnicX. I haven't seen this with ESXi, but with ESX sometimes the vmnics will get renumbered due to addition of a NIC, so it would be a good idea to backup the config of your ESXi host before adding the NIC.

[ScottChapman]

Crap. Not showing up. SO, two obvious questions follow:

1) Any way to confirm that it isn't supported?

2) any thoughts on what I can do (aside from returning the card)?

[Dave_Mishchenko]

The best bet for any hardware is to get something from the I/O HCL - see http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility. What sort of NIC do you have? You can compare it against the list below to see if it should be recognized http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/Hardware_support.php. If it is not, can you post the PCI id for the device -http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/find_PCI_ID.php.

[Lightbulb]

You might want to try a little hardware troubleshooting first. In these situations I like putting the hardware into a system with an OS that I know will see it (if it is functioning correctly). Put the NIC in a windows XP/2003 system (Or a desktop friendly Linux distro like Ubuntu) and verify functionality. If it works on the other system you have ruled out an obvious hardware failure. Try the NIC in another slot on the ESX host.

[ScottChapman]

It is the Intel Gigabit ET Dual Port Server Adapter : http://www.intel.com/Products/Server/Adapters/Gb-ET-Dual-Port/Gb-ET-Dual-Port-overview.htm

I can remove it form the system, and add it to my windows machine to get the PCI ID from it. But I didn't find it on the lists...

[ScottChapman]

Interestingly I see intel quad port cards listed, but not their smaller dual-port brothers.

Would I expect those to work?

For example

Intel PRO/1000 PT Quad Port Gigabit Ethernet Controller is listed, would the dual-port version of the card also work?

[Dave_Mishchenko]

What PCI id did you get for the NIC? It may be possible to modiify a couple of files on your install to get ESXi to recognize the NIC.

[ScottChapman]

The dev ID is 10C9 (according to docs I found at the Intel site). I haven't verified it though, but I assume that is correct...

[ScottChapman]

I am guessing that I should just try to add this card in the oem.tgz and see if it just happens to work?

[ScottChapman]

I was able to modify the oem.tgz, and I verified that after rebooting the entries to the simple.map and the pci.ids both took.

But when I ran the VI Client, I still could only see my other controller.

I am assuming that I would see a second controller when I follow the "Network Adapters" link on the configuration tab for the host. Is that right?

Any way to diagnose what's going on?

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Generally I you have a supported NIC you would just plug it in, boot up and it would show up in Configuration \ Network Adapters. At the console, if you run lspci -p does the device show the e1000 module and a vmnic name?

[ScottChapman]

Ah,,, I see:

01:00.00 8086:10c9 8086:a03c 10/ 10/0x71 A V vmnic1

01:00.01 8086:10c9 8086:a03c 0/ / B V vmnic2

But I am not seeing them in the config/network adapters display.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Usually you would see the module listed as well. If you look at the logs do you see any error messages?

[ScottChapman]

Here is my current log.

[th3Mikee]

Hi Guys,

I know this post is a few months old, but here is a try. I've just come across the same problem; we're expanding our servers network capabilities with Intel Pro 1000ET quad-port cards (x2 servers) and we're running ESXi 4.0 According to the HCL site, the card is supported (and I'd imagine the 2-port as well, it's the same chipset base).

If you look at the ESXi 4.0 downloads area, then go Tools/Drivers you'll see the ISO download for the 82576GB drivers. However, as of today, the VMware site seems to have linked it incorrectly to the broadcom drivers. I'm assuming, however, that once the link is corrected, I'll be to get my network cards working...

Update: I found this link on the Beta downloads page (not the beta driver).

http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/esx_esxi40_intel_82575_82576_dt/ZHcqYmR0QGpidGR3

I'll advise on how it goes.

[th3Mikee]

Problem solved.

ESXi 4.0 requires that you do indeed need the driver kit for the Intel Pro1000ET cards. You'll need either the VMware vMA applianace: http://www.vmware.com/downloads/downloadBinary.do?downloadGroup=VMA40&vmware=downloadBinary&file=vMA...

Or the vSphere CLI application: http://www.vmware.com/downloads/downloadBinary.do?downloadGroup=VCLI40&vmware=downloadBinary&file=VM...

to install the software.

Good luck to everyone else!

[grimjaw]

Thanks for the posts, I had the same issue and it got me to my final solution which was updating the intel drivers.  I'm including specific instructions here for other poor souls who have issues navigating linux/esxi/vmware vma:

1. Put the ESXi host into maintenance mode
   
2. Login to the vmware vma with vi-admin and usual STI password (hit alt-f2 to go to login screen)
   
3. Mount the driver cd on the vma.  You might need to shut it down and add a cdrom device via the vsphere console.
   
4. Mount the cdrom on the vma with the command “sudo mount –t iso9660 –o ro /dev/cdrom /media”   You will be prompted to enter the root (or in this case, vi-admin) password.  Now that the cdrom is mounted, its contents can be found under /media
   
5. Cd into /media and navigate to where the .zip file is.  Do an ls command so you know what the file is called.
   
6. Now you’re ready to install the patch.  Type “vihostupdate --server servername.domain.com --username root --password rootpassword --install --bundle filename.zip”
   
7. Reboot the ESXi host
   
8. Exit maintenance mode
   
9. Unmount the cdrom by moving to root by typing “cd /” (or else it will complain that the device is busy) and then type “umount /dev/cdrom”