Installing NIC drivers into ESXi 6 install?

jimphreak

jimphreak

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I know you can inject NIC drivers into a VMware ESXi installer. But is there a way to manually install the NIC drivers to an already completed install?

Just obtained the drivers for the 10GbaseT NICs on my SM X10SDV-TLN4F board from SuperMicro's tech support and was wondering if there was a quick way to inject them into my ESXi 6 install.

File is ixgbe-4.0.3.tar.gz
 
Last edited:
yep

this should work. copied it from kb

To install the async drivers:

Extract the contents of the async driver zip file.
Identify the offline-bundle.zip file(s).
Log in to the ESXi host using the vSphere Client with administrator privileges, such as root.
Using the Datastore Browser, upload the offline-bundle.zip file(s) to an ESXi hosts datastore.
Enter the host into maintenance mode.
Log in as root to the ESXi console through SSH or iLO/DRAC.
Copy the offline-bundle.zip to /var/log/vmware folder by running this command:

cp offline-bundle.zip /var/log/vmware

Run this command to install drivers using the offline bundle (this requires an absolute path):

esxcli software vib install –d /path/offline-bundle.zip

For example:

esxcli software vib install –d /var/log/vmware/offline-bundle.zip

Note: If this command fails, unzip the file and try running the same command. Use localcli instead of esxcli if the hostd is not responding.

For example:

localcli software vib install –d /var/log/vmware/offline-bundle.zip

Restart the ESXi host.
You can run this command to confirm that the VIB is installed successfully or not:

esxcli software vib list | grep -i <vib_name>

Exit maintenance mode.
 
I saw that KB article but will that work for .tar or .gz files as well?
 
I can't remembrer if you ahve to untar it first, it may have a vib inside.

copy it to /tmp
tar xzf BLAH.tar.gz
see what comes out the other end :)
 
Hmmm there is no vib inside this tar file. That's the only file extension I can use to install the drivers?
 
lopoetve said:
Not necessarily. what all is in that tarball?
Click to expand...


See spoilers below.


Pic1_zpsm4tuhrjk.jpg
Pic2_zpsc6oi8hp9.jpg
 
How adorable. Completely uncompiled. Find the ixgbe drivers on VMware's site :p
 
lopoetve said:
How adorable. Completely uncompiled. Find the ixgbe drivers on VMware's site :p
Click to expand...

What I got from SuperMicro is ixgbe-4.0.3 though where VMware only has 3.21.4 on their site. I'm thinking the drivers for my 10GbaseT NICs aren't in there.
 
Ok. So, you can compile them and create a VIB I guess - I don't know the vib part off the top of my head, but do you have a linux box handy to compile? The makefile may generate one.
 
Netwerkz101 said:
I see the following from VMware:

Version 3.21.6
Release Date 2015-02-16
Type Drivers & Tools

https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?downloadGroup=DT-ESXI60-INTEL-IXGBE-3216&productId=491

Maybe compare dates to SuperMicro's driver and try newest of the two?
Definitely see .vib file in there .... and instructions seen at:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/mi...lation using esxcli and async driver VIB file
Click to expand...


Thanks for the link but no go on the 3.21.6 version, didn't work. Since the Xeon D-1540 boards didn't really come out until April I'm guessing I'll need compile my own .vib with the newer drivers. I'm not very familiar with linux at all so I'll have to read up on how to do this.
 
In general, take ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install gcc autoconf make
untar the thing
./configure
make

see what comes out the other end. expect errors. we'll have to see what they are.
 
Unfortunately I don't have any linux machines/VMs right now to try this on.

Hoping I can find someone with this board whose gotten ESXi installed and configured on it already.
 
Stick the file somewhere I can get it - I've got a couple of build boxes I can compile it on, see what comes out the other end :)
 
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