My server of choice for running ESX 4.0 is currently Dell’s 2U PowerEdge R710. Recently I received 2 of these and began the build out process, only to find that the ESX 4.0u1 installer (and ultimately the entire OS) did not recognize either of the two Intel Quad Port GB server adapters I have installed. To get the NIC to work, I needed to manually install the drivers for this NIC. This was NOT an issue with the initial ESX 4.0 release.
The driver is located HERE.
One downloaded, use a tool like Undisker to extract the files from the ISO.
Use WinSCP to copy the extracted files to a directory on your ESX host.
At this point you must put your server in maintenance mode.
Using Putty, login to your host and change to the directory that contains the files you SCP’d over earlier.
Run esxupdate --bundle=INT-intel-lad-ddk-igb-1.3.19.12.1-offline_bundle-185976.zip update
Once the process finishes, reboot your host and exit maitenance mode. Your NIC should now be active.
oh man, costed me 2 hours to figure this out 5 days ago, even dell support couldnt help me..
At one point they even told me that it wasnt a supported nic….
But indeed this is the solution!!
Hi,
Is this the Intel Pro 1000 PT PCIe x4 card (identified as 82575GB in ESX)? I have eight R710′s with this card and six of them running ESX 4 U1 now and they seem to be identified ok. I’m using the 1.2.6 BIOS version which might make a difference, if not it sounds that your install won’t find the driver.
Best regards,
Daniel
Disclaimer: Patrick works in the LAN Access Division at Intel Corp, supporting virtualization technologies.
It is unfortunate that you had challenges with the driver for the Intel Quad Port GbE adapters. You did not specify which particular Intel Quad Port GbE adapters you are using – are they the 82575 or are they the 82576 adapters?
I ask because there is a big difference. The Intel 82575 GbE adapters do have in-box support from VMware, however the Intel 82576 GbE Quad Port controllers do not (the dual port does, but not the quad). VMware decides what drivers they support with in-box releases.
Intel provide updated Ethernet drivers to VMware, who in turn wraps them in an esxupdate package and posts them to their web site. The latest igb driver from Intel supports the Quad Port 82576 GbE adapters and is available as you pointed out here.
What seems to be missing on this page is actual installation instructions. On previous releases such as the one for ESX 3.5 here VMware provided installation instructions for updating the drivers that do not require as many steps as you unfortunately had to go through. The basic steps are:
Mount the ISO
Change dir to /VMupdates/RPMS in the ISO
Run esxupdate update
The script will run and install the driver, rebooting the server after it has finished. After the reboot has occurred, the Intel® 82576 Gigabit Ethernet Controller should now be listed when you perform the following command:
#esxcfg-nics –l
I will see if I can talk to somebody about making sure the installation instructions get added to the download page for the ESX 4.0 Intel igb driver here.
Disclaimer: Brian Johnson and Patrick works in the LAN Access Division at Intel Corp, supporting virtualization technologies.
I posted this on blogs.scottlowe.org…
It is unfortunate that you had challenges with the driver for the Intel Quad Port GbE adapters. You did not specify which particular Intel Quad Port GbE adapters you are using – are they the 82575 or are they the 82576 adapters?
I ask because there is a big difference. The Intel 82575 GbE adapters do have in-box support from VMware, however the Intel 82576 GbE Quad Port controllers do not (the dual port does, but not the quad). VMware decides what drivers they support with in-box releases.
Intel provide updated Ethernet drivers to VMware, who in turn wraps them in an esxupdate package and posts them to their web site. The latest igb driver from Intel supports the Quad Port 82576 GbE adapters and is available as you pointed out here.
http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/esx_esxi40_intel_82575_82576_dt/ZHcqYmR0QGpidGR3
What seems to be missing on this page is actual installation instructions. On previous releases such as the one for ESX 3.5 ( http://www.vmware.com/support/vi3/doc/drivercd/esx35-igb-350.1.3.8.6.3.html ) VMware provided installation instructions for updating the drivers that do not require as many steps as you unfortunately had to go through. The basic steps are:
1. Mount the ISO
2. Change dir to /VMupdates/RPMS in the ISO
3. Run esxupdate update
The script will run and install the driver, rebooting the server after it has finished. After the reboot has occurred, the Intel® 82576 Gigabit Ethernet Controller should now be listed when you perform the following command:
#esxcfg-nics –l
I will see if I can talk to somebody about making sure the installation instructions get added to the download page for the ESX 4.0 Intel igb driver here. http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/esx_esxi40_intel_82575_82576_dt/ZHcqYmR0QGpidGR3
Patrick Kutch
System Manageability & Virtualization TME, Intel Corporation
Thank you to both Patrick and Brian for working w/VMware to post instructions.
The adapter I am having an issue with is the one Dell provided me as supported for an ESX configuration. It is listed as:
“Intel Gigabit ET NIC,Quad Port, Copper, PCIe-4 (430-0657)”
It is identified as an 82575GB Adapter once this driver is installed. R710 is at 1.2.6 It is important to note these servers were a fresh build of 4.0U1, not an upgrade from 4.0. I will try to test an upgrade to see if there is any affect. I’ll also work w/Dell to track down what model/version this card truly is.
The 82575 is definately supported InBox by VMware. Most odd.
I have tracked down the proper installation instructions from the driver download page from VMware. They are under the ‘Release Notes’ link on the right side of the page.
Thanks for the followup. I am still waiting on a response from Dell regading the particular part # that I order from them:
Intel Gigabit ET NIC,Quad Port, Copper, PCIe-4 (430-0657)
Using the esxcfg-nics -l command I can see that these are the 82576 revision., it just shows up as 82575 in vCenter.
Was the 82576 revision supported out of the box in the gold release of 4.0? This only became a problem with 4.0 U1.
The Quad port 82576 is not supported InBox and must have the latest drivers downloaded.
Odd that vCenter reports them as the previos generation.
I’ve run into this same issue. Intel discontinued the VT quad prt card and replaced with the ET card. The VT card has drivers in the ESX 4 build, the ET card does not have drivers in 4.0 or 4.0 U1. A bit annoying and I really don’t like having the same model server with different Nic cards.
Intel has not discontinued the VT Quad Port NIC card. It is likely that your server manufacturer has replaced the older VT Quad Port with the newer VT due to it’s increased virtualization capabilities (better VMDq in addition to SR-IOV support).
It is unfortunate that they seem to have made this change before VMware has added inbox support for the newer Quad Port though.
A big thanks for this info it saved me many hours of troubleshooting.
Awesome, thankyou!
Thanks! This saved me a ton of time!
The basic steps are:
1. Mount the ISO
2. Change dir to /VMupdates/RPMS in the ISO
3. Run esxupdate update
I’m a newbie, how do I mount the ISO?
I’ve been trying a bunch of things and nothing is working out.
I have ESXi4u1
Amazing Dude, that is very nice information, thanks.
We are glad that the information has proved useful. Hopefully InBox support for the new Quad Port Intel NICs will be forthcoming soon and this will be just a distant memory of a challenge.
God bless you! you saved me from a ton of trouble. It worked for my Intel Quad NIC cards (don’t quite know the chipset, but tried it anyway as I didn’t have anything on my ESXi 4.0 Server).
Glad it helped!
Steve
Hello Patrick, Brian, et. al,
I have this same problem with the Intel ET Quad Ethernet Adapter with chipset 82576 but with ESXi 4.0.
Can you point me to a set of instructions that work for installing this nic to work with ESXi (as opposed to ESX)?
Thank you in advance!!!
Tim,
The instrucstions are the same. The direct link is here:
http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere4/doc/drivercd/esx-net-igb_400.1.3.19.12.1.html
- Patrick
I have been going crazy trying to get the Intel Pro/1000 GT quad port adapter recognized for esxi 4.0. I have tried everything but the quad port is not recognized. One possible issue is that i’m using a new dell 580 desktop.
Dell 2009-11-17T19:07:23 ESX Vib
ESXi400-200911203-UG 2010-03-15T13:19:56 VI Client update for 4.0 U1 release
ESXi400-Update01 2010-03-15T13:19:56 VMware ESXi 4.0 Update 1
ESXi400-201002402-BG 2010-03-15T13:20:30 Updates VMware Tools
INT-intel-lad-ddk-igb-1.3.19.12.1 2010-03-17T23:02:20 igb: Intel(R) Gigabit Ethernet Network Driver for VMware ESX
ESXi400-201003401-BG 2010-05-01T22:55:20 Updates Firmware