Intel gigabit Et dual port card in X79 board?

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HalfJawElite

Weaksauce
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Jul 2, 2012
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Hey guys, I have a question regarding the reliability of the ET dual port server adapter. I have a Windows Server 2012 hyper-v host thats used to run all of the vm's I use in my house on an ASUS P9X79 WS motherboard. The board comes with 2 Intel gigabit nic's, one of which is an Intel server nic. Ever since installing Server 2012 it only registers one onboard adapter for use and the other isn't. Because of this I am planning on getting a second server grade network adapter for the vm's to use and have the onboard dedicated to management only. The only thing currently holding me back is if the OS will properly detect and run the network card in a non-server motherboard? Would anyone have any insight as to if it will work on my board or not? Google has only revealed uses on server boards and not workstations.
 
I don't see why it wouldn't work with your board as long as the OS supports it. More interesting is why your OS doesn't see your second onboard nic.

Does Win Server 2012 see the Intel controller or the other one (I presume it's Realtek)?

Perhaps the other nic is disabled in bios for some odd reason?
 
sometimes when they use 2 different chipset NICs one will be supported by the OS out of the box, but the other will require driver install...

i've seen that before on some of the supermicro server boards w/ 2 mismatch nics...
 
The support for a particular NIC in an OS has nothing to do with the mobo, so yes you can use a server grade NIC in a non server mobo.

Really all you need to do is find the drivers for the other on-board NIC. There is no need to buy another one...
 
I checked my manual and it turns out that the board has these two controllers:
Intel® 82579V, 1 x Gigabit LAN Controller
Intel® 82574L, 1 x Gigabit LAN Controller
I know the L is supported but maybe not the V. I'm going to install the latest drivers for it to see if that helps. I know that even after I installed the drivers in Server 2008 R2 the OS still didn't want to use the V. It saw it in device manager but it had the yellow "!" on it.
Also on ASUS's website it does not list the latest drivers for Server 2012, only Windows 8. I'm sure that they're built on the same core so I'm wondering if the 8 drivers will work in 2012?
 
Go to Intel's website and download the drivers there. If you cant find Server 2012 then use Windows 8 or Server 2008R2 ones.
 
Technically, the V SKU's are not supported on server OS's.

However, since they are the same silicon, you can modify the inf file and it will load the driver. This is not supported but it should work without issue. If you want to do this, I can dig and find more information on the steps.
 
dexvx said:
Technically, the V SKU's are not supported on server OS's.

However, since they are the same silicon, you can modify the inf file and it will load the driver. This is not supported but it should work without issue. If you want to do this, I can dig and find more information on the steps.
Click to expand...

If you know of a way to get the V to work under Server 2012 then please do share. I'm curious to know how to do it since it would save me from having to buy the dual port ET card right away. I'm also wondering if you can share the reasoning behind why the V's aren't supported under Server if its the same silicon as the L's?
 
HalfJawElite said:
If you know of a way to get the V to work under Server 2012 then please do share. I'm curious to know how to do it since it would save me from having to buy the dual port ET card right away. I'm also wondering if you can share the reasoning behind why the V's aren't supported under Server if its the same silicon as the L's?
Click to expand...

The reasoning is just to make more money from people by making you buy the server versions which cost more. But yeah, you can modify the inf file to make it work. Essentially you will need to find the lines for the 82579L and duplicate them but with the vendor/deviceid of your 82579V, which you can find in device manager.
 
extide said:
The reasoning is just to make more money from people by making you buy the server versions which cost more. But yeah, you can modify the inf file to make it work. Essentially you will need to find the lines for the 82579L and duplicate them but with the vendor/deviceid of your 82579V, which you can find in device manager.
Click to expand...

Do you know of any guides that can do a step by step process of this? Never done this inf modifying before so I'm not sure how "permanent" this will be and how badly it could mess up my host. If there are no guides do you think you could post the steps for me? I'm pretty good at poking around and finding my way through windows.
 
Ok well I know this is a little dated now in posting but I figured I'd add this here for others who come across this issue in the future.

Here is the link I found to editing the Intel driver installation package using WinRAR, to edit the inf file that gets installed for the 82579V Intel Gigabit network port under Windows Server 2012.

http://www.ivobeerens.nl/2012/08/08/enable-the-intel-82579v-nic-in-windows-server-2012/

Note! The latest installation files from Intel are missing some of the lines that are shown in the inf file under both of the Gigabit connections listed. Use the images to compare the lines shown with whats in your inf. If you are missing any lines shown in the post inf file modification image, I suggest you add them in manually as these missing lines still prevented my NIC from being installed correctly.

Cheers!
 
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