how to get esxi 6.5 vmxnet3 drivers without installing esxi 6.5??

[tlyczko]

Or whatever is the most current NIC driver for ESXi 6.5??

I ask b/c a few years ago someone on this forum provided me the current 5.5 vmxnet3 drivers so I could slipstream them into a Win2k12 installer ISO from which to create a Win2k12 template VM.

I think they would be in a folder called 'vmxnet3' but where would I find that folder??

I don't have any ability or enough resources right now to do a 6.5 installation to extract the files, which is why I am inquiring here.

Thank you, Tom

[AlexSobolev]

Hi tlyczko,

vmxnet3 driver goes with vmware-tools package.

After installation VMware tools you'll get right version of vmxnet3 driver.

VMware tools package for windows and linux are always available with ESXi host, you don't need to download it from internet.

Hope it's helpful .

[vembutech1]

For vmxnet3 driver, you need to install vmware tools or open-vm-tools on the VM, becase OS vendors does not provide built-in drivers.

Choosing a network adapter for your virtual machine (1001805) | VMware KB

[tlyczko]

I need these drivers without installing 6.5 first.

I already tried getting them through VMware Workstation 12.5.5, the only thing I could get was pvscsi.

I already know about choosing proper drivers, I need these specific drivers to pre-install them into Windows Server 2016 ISO to install, create Windows Server 2016 template.

Thank you, Tom

[AlexSobolev]

You can find all versions of vmware tools here:

Index of /45848/tools/esx

It includes version for ESXi 6.5