ESXi 7.0 and Broadcom NetXtreme 5761

[imrazor]

This device appears to no longer be supported in ESXi 7.0u2, but was supported as recently as 6.7. Is there any way to enable support for this NIC? I can probably get a new NIC, but would rather not wait a week for it to arrive by slow boat nor do I want to lose one of my PCIe slots.

In the past I do remember having to slipstream a community supported driver for a Realtek GB NIC, and that process was .... painful. Can I simply drag and drop the community driver onto my USB installer?

A tangential but important question is whether it's actually worth it to use 7.0 vs 6.7. I know Kubernetes is the latest hotness, but it's not something I know or care much about at this point. Aside from that, is there any reason to install 7.0?

 

[RTM]

The HCL suggests that pre 7.0 your NIC was using the "tg3" driver which depended on vmklinux API (which was removed in 7.0).
There is a "ntg3" (native tg3) driver, but if it supported your NIC, it would have worked and it would be listed on the HCL (which it is not).

Honestly I would get a new NIC or use something that supports the one you have (like 6.7 or something like Proxmox).

I think the main reason to go with 7.0 is that 6.7 is apparently scheduled to go End of Life in less than a year.

 

[dswartz]

The HCL suggests that pre 7.0 your NIC was using the "tg3" driver which depended on vmklinux API (which was removed in 7.0).
There is a "ntg3" (native tg3) driver, but if it supported your NIC, it would have worked and it would be listed on the HCL (which it is not).

Honestly I would get a new NIC or use something that supports the one you have (like 6.7 or something like Proxmox).

I think the main reason to go with 7.0 is that 6.7 is apparently scheduled to go End of Life in less than a year.

Given some of the QA issues with 7.0, I've been reluctant to 'upgrade', but we may not have a choice soon

 

[imrazor]

Digging around in my scrap heap I did find an Intel server NIC (p/n EXPI9400PT, chipset 82572GI) that I hoped would work, but I’m having trouble finding it on the VMWare HCL. Am I out of luck with that one too?

 

[BoredSysadmin]

Intel 82572GI aka Intel PRO/1000 PT PCI Express Server Adapter

https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=io&productid=42062&deviceCategory=io&details=1&partner=46&keyword=Intel%20Pro/1000&deviceTypes=6&page=42&display_interval=10&sortColumn=Partner&sortOrder=Asc

ESXi 7.0 isn't listed.

Last year I bought four oce14102 10gig nics for $25 each. They seem to be still in the lower $30s on the fleabay now.

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It's on VMWare HCL for 7.0

 

[imrazor]

Funny thing is it’ll be connecting to a Powerline ‘backbone’ that runs at 120-160Mbps LOL.