Intel 82576 (E1G42ET) Not Working on ESXi 5?

[dfrailey]

Has anyone gotten this card (NewEgg N82E16833106035) working with ESXi 5?

It doesn't work out of the box in a Supermicro MBD-X9SCM-F-O (only the onboard 82574L NIC shows up in vSphere) and there doesn't seem to be any ESXi 5 drivers released separately.

Which is confusing (and frustrating!) since there are plenty of ESX 4 and ESXi 3 82576 drivers available!  Did I waste $177?

Thanks in advance!

[Virtualinfra]

Welcome to the community.

The NIC is supported and its listed in Vmware hardware compatability site.

refer the below link to dirver download.

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=io&productid=20594&deviceCategory=io&partner=46&releases=76&keyword=82576&deviceTypes=6&page=1&display_interval=10&sortColumn=Partner&sortOrder=Asc

You can try the below driver..

http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/dt_esxi50_intel_igb_3210/dHRAYnRoaiViZHAlJQ==

Award points if you feel the answer is helpful or correct by clicking the below tab :smileyhappy:

[dfrailey]

Thanks for the reply.

The first link doesn't actually let me reach a driver.  (It returns a page that lists a driver ftsys_igb version 2.1.11.1, but I can't see a way to download it.  Clicking the plus icon opens a "footnotes: " line that has a link to http://www.vmware.com/download/vsphere/drivers_tools.html, but that then produces the generic download page (and the named driver can't be found).

The second link (http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/dt_esxi50_intel_igb_3210/dHRAYnRoaiViZHAlJQ) is a driver I've already tried (and still have installed).  After I installed it and rebooted the number of NIC's shown in vSphere didn't change.  I still only see the onboard 82574L.  (I figured it wasn't the right driver because the description said it was for an Intel 82580 instead of 82576.)

Thanks again for jumping in.  I'm at my wits end!

-Dave

[Virtualinfra]

driver version number 2.1 .11.1 not able to find that..

can you try this below driver a lower version than before..

http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/dt_esxi50_intel_i350/dHRAYnQlQGhiZHAlJQ==

[Virtualinfra]

This one should work.the mentioned driver is with esxi4.X iso..

download that iso and copy nic driver alone to esxi 5 and install and try.. lets see if that works..

http://www.ceyhunkirmizitas.net/vmware/vsphere/how-to-install-ibm-x3850-x5-intel-82576-and-82580-gigabit-ethernet-controller-on-vmware-esxi-4x-and-esx-4x/

[dfrailey]

I actually did resort to trying what I thought was the latest ESXi 4.X driver for the 82576 (downloaded the ISO, extracted the VIB, SCP'd to the ESXi 5 host, and tried to install it).

I don't know if it was the specific driver referenced, but it wouldn't install -- I got an error saying something to the effect that I was trying to install it on an unsupported platform.  I'll verify again later this evening if it was the same driver and if not I'll give that one a shot too.

Thanks again,

-Dave

[dfrailey]

Well, to follow up -- the driver at http://www.ceyhunkirmizitas.net/vmware/vsphere/how-to-install-ibm-x3850-x5-intel-82576-and-82580-gigabit-ethernet-controller-on-vmware-esxi-4x-and-esx-4x/ is actually a little older than the other ESXi 4 driver I tried for the 82576, but they both produce the same error:

~ # esxcli software vib install --no-sig-check -v file:/tmp/vmware-esx-drivers-net-igb-400.3.1.17-1vmw.2.17.249663.x86_64.vib

[VibFormatError]

This VIB is a ESX 4.x VIB and is not supported on this version of ESX.

   filename = /tmp/vmware-esx-drivers-net-igb-400.3.1.17-1vmw.2.17.249663.x86_64.vib

Please refer to the log file for more details.

~ # esxcli software vib install --no-sig-check -v file:/tmp/vmware-esx-drivers-net-igb-400.2.1.10.2-1.0.4.164009.x86_64.vib

[VibFormatError]

This VIB is a ESX 4.x VIB and is not supported on this version of ESX.

   filename = /tmp/vmware-esx-drivers-net-igb-400.2.1.10.2-1.0.4.164009.x86_64.vib

Please refer to the log file for more details.

Any other thoughts?

Thanks!

-Dave

[nickadams]

I have a similar issue. I installed ESXi vSphere 5  on a Supermicro H8DGU-F based server. It saw both Intel Intel 82576 controller's fine as I connected from vSphere client. I updated the Supermicro BIOS from 2.0 to 2.0A and when I booted back into vSphere it said no compatible network controllers found. I still have link from the NICs.

[nickadams]

My apologies. I had to reload the BIOS optimal defaults to have vSphere see my NICs again. 

[dfrailey]

Nick, did you have to install a separate driver, or did the 82576 work with an out-of-the box ESXi 5 install (after resetting BIOS to default settings)?

Thanks,

-Dave

[nickadams]

Dave,

It worked out of the box for me without adding any additional drivers, but they are onboard NICs and not the Intel E1G42ET. I just remembered I purchased 4 Intel E1G42ET for use in some storage servers I am building. I will try and install one this weekend on ESXi 5 and see if I can reprduce your problem.

-Nick

[dfrailey]

Thanks Nick,

I sure appreciate all of the help from this thread!

-Dave

[nickadams]

Dave,

I was able to install my Intel E1G42ET (also purchased from Newegg) into my ESXi 5 server without adding any additional drivers. It was recognized on boot up:

vmnic0  0000:07:00.00 igb         Up   1000Mbps  Full   00:25:90:4b:0a:94 1500   Intel Corporation 82576 Gigabit Network Connection
vmnic1  0000:07:00.01 igb         Down 0Mbps     Half   00:25:90:4b:0a:95 1500   Intel Corporation 82576 Gigabit Network Connection
vmnic2  0000:05:00.00 igb         Down 0Mbps     Half   90:e2:ba:01:12:98 1500   Intel Corporation 82576 Gigabit Network Connection
vmnic3  0000:05:00.01 igb         Down 0Mbps     Half   90:e2:ba:01:12:99 1500   Intel Corporation 82576 Gigabit Network Connection

Maybe you have a bad NIC or motherboard PCI-E slot. Does it work in another slot or server?

- Nick

[nickadams]

Dave,

Two other things I noticed; the link you purchased your card from was different then my purchase here, and someone said your card doesn't work on vSphere 5 on the newegg forum. Not sure if that was you who posted on newegg?

The only real difference I can see is mine was OEM (no box) and mine says PCI-e X16. Not sure if they are actually different cards or not, but they shouldn't be based on their model number.

- Nick

[dfrailey]

Follow-up:  When the E1G42ET was reinstalled back to slot #6 on the Supermicro MBD-X9SCM-F-O (#6 and #7 are x8 slots), it stopped working.  Moved it back to slot #4 (a x4 slot) and it resumed working (go figure).

I sure appreciate all the suggestions.  I wouldn't have tried moving it to another slot if someone hadn't said the thing did work with ESXi 5.

-Dave

[dfrailey]

Nick,

A thousand thanks for your thoughts and trying to dupe my issue -- it gave me incentive to try starting from scratch.

I moved the E1G42ET from an x8 slot to an x4 slot (the MBD-X9SCM-F-O has two of each), removed all other cards, reset bios settings to defaults, physically disabled the onboard nics, and did a fresh ESXi 5 install to a separate USB stick, and the E1G42ET worked!  I added back the bios settings needed (primarily vt-d), the other cards, and re-enabled the onboard nics -- and it still works.

So from what I can determine the fix was either resetting bios settings or moving from an x8 slot to x4 slot (or the actual slot order).  Theoretically the BIOS settings shouldn't be much different now than what they were before, but maybe there's something less obvious that was cleared by doing a "restore defaults".

When I can afford more down time I'd like to move the E1G42ET back to the x8 slot and see if it still works.  If it does, I'll mark the reply that mentioned resetting the Supermicro bios settings as the "correct answer".

Thanks again,

-Dave