Quad port nic for ESXi 5.0 - Sandybridge host

[MrReplay]

Hi,

I am looking for a quad port gigabit nic for my vSphere ESXi 5.0 host - I've bought a few nics in the past that haven't fitted (getting confused with the various PCI types...)

Motherboard = Z68 Fatal1ty Gen 3

Any help greatly appreciated!!

 

[peanuthead]

Intel or Broadcom would probably be the easiest to get ahold of. Look for an Intel Pro/1000 PT quad nic on ebay. You could also do 2 dual nics too.

 

[MrReplay]

Hey thanks for reply - could you link me to quad port nic's that would fit that motherboard??

I keep getting ones that don't fit

 

[MrReplay]

ie I bought a PCI-E thinking it would fit but no such joy

 

[/usr/home]

ie I bought a PCI-E thinking it would fit but no such joy

I don't see how you are having issues fitting it. It's a regular PCI-E card. Are you getting the wrong profile size or what?

 

[MrReplay]

I don't know exactly what you mean by wrong profile size but I don't have a slot which fits this card >> http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161089492065?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

 

[QHalo]

You have to use one of your red slots.

 

[peanuthead]

You have to use one of your red slots.

QHalo is correct. If you are trying to us the black ones then the best you are going to get is a single port card. Anything beyond that (dual port+ cards) were PCI-X. You could "technically" use a PCI-X card in a PCI slot but the bus speed of PCI slots is too slow for that.

Just use one of the red slots if you can. Otherwise, get another board for ESXi.

 

[MrReplay]

LOL, thank you for explaining in layman's terms!!

It hadn't occurred to me to use one of those slots, I thought they were just for graphics

 

[mwarps]

Intel ET2 is a good card for this, and will passthrough.

 

[TCM]

If you can, get this http://ark.intel.com/products/59063/Intel-Ethernet-Server-Adapter-I350-T4

i350 is supported out of the box in ESXi and it's not an ancient chipset - with SR-IOV and VT-c for what it's worth.

 

[OkiieDoe]

i have a Intel PRO/1000 VT "Intel Gigabit VT Quad" you can find them on ebay for around a 100$

running on ESXi 5.1 Update 1 (Build 1065491) on a Asus RIVG and has virtual machine device queues (VMDq)

 

[shollz]

i have a Intel PRO/1000 VT "Intel Gigabit VT Quad" you can find them on ebay for around a 100$

running on ESXi 5.1 Update 1 (Build 1065491) on a Asus RIVG and has virtual machine device queues (VMDq)

Why so many Nics? A bunch of VM's or running a VM router?

 

[MrGreenMan]

i have a Intel PRO/1000 VT "Intel Gigabit VT Quad" you can find them on ebay for around a 100$

running on ESXi 5.1 Update 1 (Build 1065491) on a Asus RIVG and has virtual machine device queues (VMDq)

Did you end up using anything on your nics? I'm considering a quad nic for my esxi server and can't really justify use, besides utility.

 

[QHalo]

Mostly it's for messing around with link aggregation or using for a router. If you have the room you can get two dual ports for half the price. You might even find 1000PT's for cheaper as well.

 

[stiltner]

Look for some Dell pulls.

Intel cards = $100

Dell pulls that are the same card = $30

Thats for the Dual Port models. The Quads experience the same cost differential
and the ones I got don't even have Dell #'s on them, its straight Intel parts.

 

[dbwillis]

I have a 6 port Intel chip GB PCie card for sale, cheap !