Microsoft Vista OS not finding NIC

[matthewEaton]

I have an older ESX version. Really old version like say 2.5.0....

I have successfully created a Vista VM on this ESX however the NIC card does not seem to recognize by the OS. The NIC is a BROADCOM NetXtreme BCM5704 Gigabit Ethernet type.

If the version of ESX is to old that's fine... I am planning on performing an upgrade when I have time.

[oreeh]

The VM doesn't see the physical NIC, it sees a virtual NIC.

Vista probably doesn't have a vlance (AMD PCnet) driver - so you are out of luck.

[matthewEaton]

Ok, Thank you.

Just to make sure I have this clear in my mind.

The virtual NIC, which uses a Vlance adapter, can not be seen by the Vista OS because it does not have the correct driver.

What I have noticed with my ESX 3.0.1 server is that the Adapter type is Flexible. Do you know what the difference is between a Flexible adapter and a Vlance adapter?

If not, thank you anyway for your reply.

[RDPetruska]

The \*default* adapter type is flexible. That means it mutates from an AMD Lance to a VMware Accelerated Lance (vmxnet) once the VMware Tools are installed. Vista, however, requires the E1000 virtual NIC (which you must manually change to in the vmx file).

[matthewEaton]

So is it safe to assume that if I edit the vmx file I can work around this issue? Even if it is on a ESX 2.5?

[Jae_Ellers]

I believe the e1000 is newly supported in ESX 3.

[taylorb]

Vista is listed as being "experimentally" supported by VMware and only for ESX 3.0.x. You are probably going to have a tough time getting it to run on ESX 2.5 unless you can find a vlance driver for vista. You may try running the VMtools install and seing if it works with the vmxnet, but its probably not going to work.

[pdrace]

Vista is listed as being "experimentally" supported

by VMware and only for ESX 3.0.x.

If the press on it is correct, Vista should be considered "Experimental".

[matthewEaton]

Ok, thanks everyone for your insight.

[jgswinkels]

Quite simple solution, Install Vista and use the VMware drivers to install the NIC.

cheers,

Jan