Pfsense in ESX not finding NICS

Shockey

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Nov 24, 2008
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I trying to get pfsense to work on my ESX server. I run the live cd and it loads up and ask me to find my network card. I choose auto detect. It detects no uplink everytime i try.

Is there a trick to get it to detect the Virtual nics? :confused:

I had untangled installed and it worked just fine.

Anyone else have success installing pfsense in esx and getting the NIC detected?

Thanks in advance
 
pfSense's autodetect works by detecting a change in the NIC's link state as you plug or unplug the ethernet cable. Don't ESX's virtual NICs always have 'link' no matter what you do with the cables (I'm really not sure, but it seems logical)? Can you manually enter the NIC ids when asked?

Can you show the console output after booting the LiveCD?
 
ESX Nics aren't always on, usually in the vmware guest settings they default with the "connect at power on" box checked though, which will give you a connected nic everytime you power on.

You can go in and toggle the "connected" state under edit settings to change the link status when the box is up and running.
 
Thanks for the help guys. I powered off the nic for lan and it detected it was down and told me the name. So i reconnected it and then tried auto detect.(still failed) so i inserted the name it spit out. Guessed the wan interface name which ended up being em0 :)

Thanks again figured it out
 
Just for future reference, the autodetect works like this:

-You start with all network cables disconnected, and no link up on any NIC (all virtual adapters off)
-You tell pfSense you want to use autodetect, and wait for the prompt to 'connect the ethernet cable to the LAN interface now' or whatever it says, then connect the cable or enable the virtual adapter
-You tell pfSense you have done this and it will detect which NIC the link has come up on and assign it as requested

Repeat as necessary for your other interfaces. You must have all NICs disconnected when you start the process or it won't work.
 
Just for future reference, the autodetect works like this:

-You start with all network cables disconnected, and no link up on any NIC (all virtual adapters off)
-You tell pfSense you want to use autodetect, and wait for the prompt to 'connect the ethernet cable to the LAN interface now' or whatever it says, then connect the cable or enable the virtual adapter
-You tell pfSense you have done this and it will detect which NIC the link has come up on and assign it as requested

Repeat as necessary for your other interfaces. You must have all NICs disconnected when you start the process or it won't work.

Simpler and straight forward way of what i did. :p
 
Mine is setup with e1000 virtual nics. Assign eht0 and eth1 to the correct interfaces (wan/lan) these should go to your vswitch or physical nic. I used vswitches. The auto detect didn't work for me, but I did get it working.
 
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