Add Drivers To Esxi Installer

Esxi Nic Driver
Add Drivers To Esxi Installer
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Esxi Network Driver
Add Drivers To Esxi Installer Windows 10
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Active2 years, 9 months ago

Create a custom ESXi image with the correct drivers injected and then rebuild the host using the custom ESXi installer image; Manually install the drivers via the DCUI; I went with option 2, however if you want to know how to create your own ESXi custom image, then I have documented it here How To – Create custom VMware ESXi Image. So in my lab, I was able to add custom drivers and remove drivers from the original VMware ESXi 6.5 ISO. The resulted image was then exported as ISO or it can be used for AutoDeploy scenarios. You might also need to create a custom ESXi 6.5 ISO when you need to integrate other than the stocked VMware drivers, say you have a NIC card which has.

Background / Problem

I have two new servers (Dell R720 & Dell R520) that I plan to install ESXi onto.
During the VMWare Hypervisor installation, I'm told that no network adapters exist.
Upon checking, I realized that the Broadcom NetXtreme I drivers are required additionally
I have obtained the Broadcom driver software bundle from VMWare's web site
I have installed PowerCLI on my desktop in case I will need it.

Question

Esxi Nic Driver

Two weeks ago I was presented with a problem regarding the use of drivers that were not part of the standard ESXi ISO. I started looking into it and discovered there are two main solutions for a problem like this. Installing drivers during the installation Injecting drivers into the ISO Both.
With standard ESX it is very easy to add additional drivers during installation. Just select ‘Yes’ when the installations asks if you want to add additional drivers, select and add the driver and you’re done. With ESXi you have only two options when installing, 1. Install ESXi, 2. Boot from harddisk.

Most ESXi guides describe doing this on a server that's already been set up once, but I am installing ESXi on these boxes for the first time.

How do I properly get these network card drivers into the installation process?
I am under the impression that I may need to configure a custom installation package that includes these drivers (and use PowerCLI to do this) -- if so, how do I best go about doing this?

SeanKilleenSeanKilleen

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4 Answers

Which version of ESXi are you trying to install.. I think the drivers for those are now included in 5.1 (I might be wrong though).

Alternatively, you can try to use the Dell customized build of ESXi ISO to install VMWare and see if those include the required drivers you need.

RexRex

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Another way that can work:

Download the offline software bundle for the NetXtreme I cards from VMWare.
Download the ESXi Customizer software
Extract ESXi customizer
Run ESXi customizer as an administrator.
Select the ISO file
Select the .VIB file for the drivers
Select an output directory
During the installation, allow ESXi customizer to replace the VIB file
ESXi Customizer creates a bootable ISO.
Use the custom ESXi ISO to install.

A huge thanks for these tools as they are the only thing that allowed me to get this done quickly.

I'm going to wait to see how the Dell ISO works out and then try this one. I'll mark the answer as correct in that order of which one works.

References

SeanKilleen