ESXi not recognizing PCI Network Adapters

[TCLiven]

Good Afternoon -

I am trying to add a few new ESXi hosts to my VM environment and I want to team my embedded nics with the PCI nics for fault tolerance. ESXi is not seeing the PCI nics. I cannot find a way on how to add them to the host. Add network adapters in VC just shows the embedded nics, the same as the ESXi console (or what there is of it). What am I missing here? Thanks in advance.

server = PowerEdge R710

[Dave_Mishchenko]

What model of NICs are these? You might have to install some drivers for them - http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/datacenter_downloads/vmware_vsphere_4/4#drivers_tools.




Dave

VMware Communities User Moderator

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Do you have a system or PCI card working with VMDirectPath? Submit your specs to the Unofficial VMDirectPath HCL.

[TCLiven]

Oh my goodness. Doh! Sorry about that, did not even think about that. Is there anyway I can pull up what kind they are w/o breaking open the box? I am new to ESX/ESXi and am ashamed to admit it but really miss my open manage gui. :o)

From Dell's support site via service tag, it looks like they are Intel PCI-E. I will try to figure out how to install drivers on this box and report back. Also if you have a free minute, how does one confirm that firmware's are up to snuff + drivers on ESXi? Is there a command I can run?

[Sreejesh_D]

the following article should help you on istalling drivers on ESXi.

http://www.vmguru.nl/wordpress/2010/03/add-additional-drivers-to-esxi/

VCP3, VCP4, RHCE, EMCPA

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[Sreejesh_D]

Here's a doc from VMware, consider it as an example.

http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere4/doc/drivercd/esx40-net-igb_400.1.3.19.12-1.0.4.html

[Dave_Mishchenko]

You can patch ESXi with

1) Update Manager - in which case you'll create a baseline apply it your host(s) and then check to see if the host(s) are up today.

2) vihostupdate - this is from the vCLI

3) esxupdate - this is available at the console of ESXi and it's preferable not to use it unless the above 2 fail.

4) PowerCLI - has cmdlets to update your host as well.

If you're running 4.1 you have the lastest and greatest. Otherwise you can check out patches here - http://www.vmware.com/patch/download/. Look at the firmware version and then check that against your host.

To get the NIC info - i'll assume you have 4.1

1) At the DCUI, login and select Troubleshooting Options.

2) Enable Local or Remote Tech Support mode. If you enable Remote TSM then access the host with a SSH client like Putty.

3) Use lspci to get PCI id info and model names. You can use the -v or -p swictches to get more info.

Start with lspci | grep Network

Dave

VMware Communities User Moderator

Now available - vSphere Quick Start Guide

Do you have a system or PCI card working with VMDirectPath? Submit your specs to the Unofficial VMDirectPath HCL.

[TCLiven]

We have the following version ESXi 4.0.0 Releasebuild-208167. I was told this was 4.1 however looks like I need to start following up on a lot of things I was told.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

You can use the same options to upgrade to 4.1. Just search for "ESXi upgrade 4.1"




Dave

VMware Communities User Moderator

Now available - vSphere Quick Start Guide

Do you have a system or PCI card working with VMDirectPath? Submit your specs to the Unofficial VMDirectPath HCL.

[TCLiven]

Hi Dave -

Since I do not have 4.1, how do I get the NIC info on 4.0? Also what is best practice on adding the new hosts? Do I add the new hosts to the current environment and then update or do I get the hosts updated prior to adding them to the current environment? Thanks again for your help.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

You can press ALT+F1 to access the console and then login with root. In terms of adding hosts you can do either. As long as vCenter is at 4.1 you can add 4.0 or 4.1 hosts.




Dave

VMware Communities User Moderator

Now available - vSphere Quick Start Guide

Do you have a system or PCI card working with VMDirectPath? Submit your specs to the Unofficial VMDirectPath HCL.

[TCLiven]

Thank you again for your patience and help. It looks as though vCenter is at 4.0.0 Build 208111. So I will hold off on upgrading the hosts to 4.1 until I can upgrade vCenter and all the rest of the hosts at the same time. Have a great day.

[TCLiven]

Hi Dave -

Sorry about bugging you one more time. I got sidetracked after logging into the hidden console and now that I have gotten back to it, all I can see are the nics that are embedded. I need to know how to find out what the PCI nics are without breaking open the box so I can download the proper drivers. Since this command is ESX based, there must be some linux command that will tell me all the nics? Ugh..

[Dave_Mishchenko]

If you run lspci | grep Network you should be able to identify the PCI devices that are NICs. You can then run lspci -p to get the specific PCI ids for those devices.




Dave

VMware Communities User Moderator

Now available - vSphere Quick Start Guide

Do you have a system or PCI card working with VMDirectPath? Submit your specs to the Unofficial VMDirectPath HCL.

[TCLiven]

hahaha.. yeah, one would think that would tell me what kind of nics there are... however all it says is Intel Corporation. No worries, I will just see if I can find the darn paperwork from ordering them and if not, I will just start installing the three different intel drivers from the link you gave me. Thank you again for everything..

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Once you have the PCI ID, try a search on Google. You'll likely pick up the model. You can also try www.pcidatabase.com and on vmware.com/go/hcl you can search by PCI ID.




Dave

VMware Communities User Moderator

Now available - vSphere Quick Start Guide

Do you have a system or PCI card working with VMDirectPath? Submit your specs to the Unofficial VMDirectPath HCL.

[TCLiven]

thank you, thank you, thank you! I finally feel I am moving forward again! :o)