Is there a way to "inject" a .vib that's meant for a different version of ESXI ? And would it work ?

[AlexMercerTheGr]

Hi,

I have a problem - I have HP nc512m adapters, but they aren't supported on ESXi 5.1. I can only find drivers for ESXI 4.3. Is there a way to use the drivers and .vibs for 4.3 and make them work on 5.1 ? I've seen people do some magic with drivers and versions ( especially making unsupported NICs work on certain versions ). Any help on making those NICs usable on 5.1 is appreciated

Thanks in advance!

[Techie01]

This is something which is not recommended or supported. There will be a reason why this driver is discontinued from esx5.x onwards. You could potentially be losing data or crashing the system.

If your environment is a test lab type of configuration, may be you can try the steps mentioned in VMware Front Experience: How to make your unsupported NIC work with ESXi 5.x or 6.0

Pick a supported driver VIB for reference and modify your 4.x driver contents accordingly.

Note: I have personally not tried this .