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krismcewan
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Getting new Drivers into ESXi

Hi all

Having a mare here trying to get 10gb Ethernet Card Drivers into ESXi 5.1 (view build).

servers are HPdl380G6's

We have NO physical access to the hosts only ILO access.

only the 10Gb cards are connected the 1gb cards are not cabled and cant be cabled.

I have created an ISO and Floppy image of the Drivers and cannot seem to get them mounted.

I used the vsish meathod with no luck as the grep command looks like it only works when there is 1 CD drom. Ilo connections create a second USB CD rom

I tried mounting the USB but it never seems to mount. (stopped usb arbitrator sees the vmhba but doesnt appear in volumes)

Cannot get a floppy to mount at all.

Anyone got any clues for me

Kris

A VMware Consultant in Scotland for Taupo Consulting http://www.taupoconsulting.co.uk If you think I'm right or helpful award me some points please
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jrmunday
Commander
Commander

I just tested this, and it worked for me ... is this the same method that you tried?

Version Information;

~ # esxcli system version get
   Product: VMware ESXi
   Version: 5.0.0
   Build: Releasebuild-821926
   Update: 1

Mounted an ISO via the ILO, and then ran this to check the name;

~ # esxcfg-mpath -l | grep Name
   Runtime Name: vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
   Device Display Name: Local USB CD-ROM (mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0)

Loaded the iso9660 module;

~ # vmkload_mod iso9660
Module iso9660 loaded successfully

Mounted the device;

~ # /sbin/vsish -e set /vmkModules/iso9660/mount mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0

Verified that I could see the contents;

~ # ls /vmfs/volumes/mpx.vmhba32\:C0\:T0\:L0/ -lh
-rwx------    1 root     root         5.1k Nov  1  2011 AUTORUN
-rwx------    1 root     root           77 Oct 17  2011 AUTORUN.CMD
-rwx------    1 root     root           79 Oct 17  2011 AUTORUN.INF
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            8 Jan  1  1970 COMPAQ
-rwx------    1 root     root        84.8k May 30 22:20 CONTENTS.HTML
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            8 Jan  1  1970 HP
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            8 Jan  1  1970 HP_MANIFEST
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            8 Jan  1  1970 SYSTEM
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            8 Jan  1  1970 USB
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            8 Jan  1  1970 XML
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            8 Jan  1  1970 _AUTORUN

vExpert 2014 - 2022 | VCP6-DCV | http://www.jonmunday.net | @JonMunday77
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krismcewan
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Yes thats what I tried and it doesnt work in 5.1

Version : 5.1 build  838463

A VMware Consultant in Scotland for Taupo Consulting http://www.taupoconsulting.co.uk If you think I'm right or helpful award me some points please
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krismcewan
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Update on this.

we are trying to inject the drivers into the ISO using Image Builder.

If it works i will post up the scripts i used.

A VMware Consultant in Scotland for Taupo Consulting http://www.taupoconsulting.co.uk If you think I'm right or helpful award me some points please
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krismcewan
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Ok this works so for future reference this is how i did it.

PowerShell 2.0 is required (already on Windows 7/2008)

Install POWERCLI from Vmware
(https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/get-download?downloadGroup=VSP510-PCLI-510)

  1. Download the required drivers from Vmware/vendor and extract the install
  2. Create a new folder called esxi off the root of c: and place these files into the new directory
  3. Open the VMware vSphere PowerCLI (32-Bit) shortcut from the Start Menu.
  4. Change to the new directory

cd \esxi

  1. Run this command to connect to VMware’s online software depot

Add-EsxSoftwareDepot https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml

  1. Run this command to get a list of all the ESXi 5 images

Get-EsxImageProfile | Sort-Object “ModifiedTime” -Descending | format-table -property Name,CreationTime

  1. Run this command to add the offline bundle zip of the driver to the depot: repeat if more bundles are required to be added

Add-EsxSoftwareDepot .\qlcnic-esx50-5.0.741-offline_bundle-635278.zip

  1. Run this command to make a copy of the image. (Note the first esxi image name should be the one used for deployment the second name can be anything you want may have to be changed if its already present.)

New-EsximageProfile -cloneprofile ESXi-5.1.0-20121004001-standard -name “ESXi-5.1.0-qlnic-20121004001"

  1. Add the drivers to the new image repeat for every bundle

Add-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile ESXi-5.1.0-qlnic-20121004001 net-qlcnic

  1. Compare the new image with the standard default to check that the new drivers are included

Compare-Esximageprofile -comparisonprofile  ESXi-5.1.0-qlnic-20121004001 -ReferenceProfile ESXi-5.1.0-20121004001-standard

  1. Download the new ISO to the desktop.

Export-EsxImageProfile -ImageProfile ESXi-5.1.0-qlnic-20121004001 -ExportToIso -FilePath c:\esxi\ESXi-5.1.0-qlnic-20121004001.iso

  1. Install ESXi sit back and take the praise from your boss
A VMware Consultant in Scotland for Taupo Consulting http://www.taupoconsulting.co.uk If you think I'm right or helpful award me some points please
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grasshopper
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Nice work and thanks for sharing.  Pure 10Gb converged deployments are a bit of a chess match when it comes to getting those drivers on there as you have found.  There are a ton of methods out there (i.e. adding a temp copper mgmt connection then using vCLI to install drivers) but PowerCLI ImageBuilder seems to be the best atm.

Here are some cool options that may simplify your current method:

http://communities.vmware.com/message/2098118?tstart=0

http://www.virtu-al.net/2011/09/15/image-builder-and-auto-deploy-powerpack/

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