Got the exact same problem.

Customized VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.5.0.update01-1623387.x86_64.iso with everything under the sun, didn't work.

Thinking it had to do with driver compatibility, I also tried customizing VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.1.0.update02-1483097.x86_64.iso to no avail.

My specs:

Asus H97M-Plus

Intel 4690S

16GB DDR3-1600 RAM

Thinking of bying a supported NIC.

Did you find a solution?

I even got to the point thinking the motherboard had the network component broken.

To test that I tried installing a debian OS with a live cd I created one year ago. Same problem, no network device.

I created the latest debian live and the network card was identified and a driver successfully installed.

That means the card is new.

Here is the content from pci.updates

        15a1  Ethernet Connection (2) I218-V

Customizing with tgz is deprecated. Maybe that has something to do with it not working.

Without knowing any ESXi internals, I expect the damn thing to be identified.

I'll continue to search a solution, will post updates when I make progress. Please do the same

I'm in the same boat as you guys.

My specs:

Asus H97M-Plus

Intel 4770S

32GB DDR3-1600 RAM

Did anyone try an alternate supported NIC, to see if the rest of the board is supported?

I guess this is just the drawback to trying to go for the latest hardware.

I ordered the Intel PRO/1000 CT. Not cheap, but definitely cheaper than other Intel cards. Oh man, went beyond budget again

Received my Intel PRO/1000 CT network card today.

With it, I got past the 'No network adapters found' issue. No problems so far, the Samsung SSD detected, no driver issues there. Installation still in progress though

This is madness. We have piles of NICs here, including ones with 8039 / 8139 chipsets, 3Com cards etc. etc. These are really really common cards, and not having drivers built into the install pack is a gross oversight that fundamentally undermines the idea of demo software. I have the morning to investigate using this software: so far I have wasted most of it endlessly rebooting the installer to be told "No network card". I have never, ever, come across on O/S before that doesn't support these basic, almost universal cards. Another case of a company becoming too big & successful to understand the needs of it's customers?

Mark,

I don't know the reason behind this, but vmware are deprecating drivers for older hardware with every release. I suspect it has to do with keeping the install base small.

They do maintain the hardware compatibility list, that's their take it or leave it contract. I couldn't say it's inaccurate, however I have a network card that's supported and it's not in that list. I needed other sources to make sure I don't do the wrong purchase.

The product being free of charge, most probably we can complain at our own expense It's kinda the right thing.

I hope the paying folk have it better.

Guys,

in a previous post I mentioned that the samsung ssd was visible. Well, I didn't get to boot it after a successful instalation of esxi on it and from that point on the motherboard started acting strangely, not booting from anything. Had to run the jumper bios reset.

After that I installed anew from the stock iso onto a usb stick and was able to boot from it. No storage adapters were visible though, therefore my samsung ssd was not present in the list.

Here are the steps I took to solve it.

In UEFI BIOS, Advanced>Storage PCH there's an option (storage type something) with 3 possible values: RAID, IDE, AHCI. Chose AHCI. Rebooted the hypervisor.

Followed VMware Front Experience: How to make your unsupported SATA AHCI Controller work with ESXi 5.5 (the first 3 commands) and that installed the required drivers nicely.

I am now able to install VMs onto the SSD.

Preparing my Nobel Prize nomination letter, advising the committee to add Andreas Peetz for next year's peace prize face-off.

Message was edited by: cug1248

I think I have the solution.

Last year I decided to replace my aging Linux server with a Home Virtualization Server ("White Box").  Previous work required me to evaluate various virtualization options (Xen, ESXi, Hyper-V, etc) and I had selected VMware as best of breed for my customer.  Thus I decided on 5.5 for my home machine as well.

Procrastination being a good friend (oh, and I got married), I finally got around to this project in May.  Wanting a "cutting-edge" system that would last me several years into the future, I purchased an Intel i7-4790S and ASRock Extreme6.  Imagine my surprise when I learned that neither one of my two on-board NICs (I218-V and Realtek RTL8111GR) was supported!  Further research indicated that there were no recent Community drivers for these NICs available.  The old ones I found all failed.  So I purchased the Intel EXPI9301 (~$30) just to get ESXi to install.

After more research, I learned that some people were having success building their own drivers for ESXi.  I decided to give this a shot, as it appeared fairly straight-forward and I want a second NIC.

I was mistaken.  Building an ESXi driver is non-trivial.  I found and followed the excellent guide from "trickstarter" and that helped greatly:

http://www.vm-help.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=4340

So, after much frustration, cursing, late nights, and red wine, I compiled an e1000e driver from the latest SourceForge code that seems to run OK on my Extreme6 / I218-V (see attached).

The usual disclaimers apply: use at your own risk, no warranties implied or given, etc.  I'm putting it out there hoping it can help someone.  According to the PCI ID file, it should support the following:

    1049  82566MM Gigabit Network Connection

    104a  82566DM Gigabit Network Connection

    104b  82566DC Gigabit Network Connection

    104c  82562V 10/100 Network Connection

    104d  82566MC Gigabit Network Connection

    105e  82571EB Gigabit Ethernet Controller

    105f  82571EB Gigabit Ethernet Controller

    1060  82571EB Gigabit Ethernet Controller

    107d  82572EI Gigabit Ethernet Controller

    107e  82572EI Gigabit Ethernet Controller

    107f  82572EI Gigabit Ethernet Controller

    108b  82573V Gigabit Ethernet Controller

    108c  82573E Gigabit Ethernet Controller

    1096  80003ES2LAN Gigabit Ethernet Controller

    1098  80003ES2LAN Gigabit Ethernet Controller

    109a  82573L Gigabit Ethernet Controller

    10a4  82571EB Gigabit Ethernet Controller

    10a5  82571EB Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Fiber)

    10b9  82572EI Gigabit Ethernet Controller

    10ba  80003ES2LAN Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper)

    10bb  80003ES2LAN Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Serdes)

    10bc  82571EB Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper)

    10bd  82566DM-2 Gigabit Network Connection

    10bf  82567LF Gigabit Network Connection

    10c0  82562V-2 10/100 Network Connection

    10c2  82562G-2 10/100 Network Connection

    10c3  82562GT-2 10/100 Network Connection

    10c4  82562GT 10/100 Network Connection

    10c5  82562G 10/100 Network Connection

    10cb  82567V Gigabit Network Connection

    10cc  82567LM-2 Gigabit Network Connection

    10cd  82567LF-2 Gigabit Network Connection

    10ce  82567V-2 Gigabit Network Connection

    10d3  82574L Gigabit Network Connection

    10d5  82571PT Gigabit PT Quad Port Server ExpressModule

    10d9  82571EB Dual Port Gigabit Mezzanine Adapter

    10da  82571EB Quad Port Gigabit Mezzanine Adapter

    10de  82567LM-3 Gigabit Network Connection

    10df  82567LF-3 Gigabit Network Connection

    10e5  82567LM-4 Gigabit Network Connection

    10ea  82577LM Gigabit Network Connection

    10eb  82577LC Gigabit Network Connection

    10ef  82578DM Gigabit Network Connection

    10f0  82578DC Gigabit Network Connection

    10f5  82567LM Gigabit Network Connection

    10f6  82574L Gigabit Network Connection

    1501  82567V-3 Gigabit Network Connection

    150c  82583V Gigabit Network Connection

    1525  82567V-4 Gigabit Network Connection

    153a  Ethernet Connection I217-LM

    153b  Ethernet Connection I217-V

    1559  Ethernet Connection I218-V

    155a  Ethernet Connection I218-LM

    15a0  Ethernet Connection (2) I218-LM

    15a1  Ethernet Connection (2) I218-V

    15a2  Ethernet Connection (3) I218-LM

    15a3  Ethernet Connection (3) I218-V

    294c  82566DC-2 Gigabit Network Connection

Good work!

However I cant seem to integrate this vib into the ESXI 5.5u1 iso.

I have been trying to use the ESXi-Customizer v2.7.2.

The procedure stops after checking the vib file. And I get the error: "The syntax of the command is incorrect."

Is there an alternate way of doing this?