Good NIC for Hyper-V

[britcowboy]

Hi Folks,

I bought a Dell Intel PRO/1000 VT Quad Port Ethernet NIC Adapter second hand from ebay, to go in my TS140, not thinking anything of it - but it turns out that they dropped support for Windows Server 2012 in this version, so I can't use it :| Not too impressed with them for that, not sure when the last time I had a device I couldn't get drivers for!

Anyway, I'm going to have to try to return or resell, and have to get an alternative. I'm looking for something that is definately supported in Windows Server 2012, is Gigabit and is either a dual or a quad port NIC. Preferably not much more than £50 either.

I've looked at this: NEW Intel I350-T4 PCI-Express PCI-E Four RJ45 Gigabit Ports Server Adapter NIC - which I assume is a Chinese Knockoff, but I'm not sure if it's worth getting

or this:

Lenovo ThinkServer I350-T4 AnyFabric 1Gb 4 Port Base-T Ethernet Adapter by Intel - Ebuyer

Which seems to be genuine, but it does seem to be pretty cheap for a brand new I350-T4 - is there something I'm missing? Also, my worry is I'll have the same issue with 2016 when that comes out, will I350-T4 likely be supported in Server 2016?

Any ideas? Thanks

 

[Aluminum]

Yeah VT uses the intel 82575/6 and it had a pretty short life.

If you are looking for advanced features and current support, the i350 is the only intel GbE controller in town, everything newer is 10/40GbE or part of the basic featured 1-port/embedded PCH designs. In the ~$50 price class you pretty much have to risk the knockoffs/clones, or get lucky with best offers/sniping on a server pull from a reputable seller.

The lenovo part you linked shows a picture of a mezzanine card, not standard pci-e and I don't see a standard FRU part number anywhere. I'd stick to fleabay if you can.

For those that just need working ports with good intel unix drivers, the old school Pro 1000 / PT / 82571 / 'em' cards are cheap and plentiful.

 

[britinpdx]

I bought a Dell Intel PRO/1000 VT Quad Port Ethernet NIC Adapter second hand from ebay, to go in my TS140, not thinking anything of it - but it turns out that they dropped support for Windows Server 2012 in this version, so I can't use it

I'm not sure if this is the same problem that you have, but just in case ..

I have a couple of different Dell quad port cards. Physically they look the same, but one has a Dell p/n 0K828C and the other is Dell p/n 0YT674. The 0K828C is automatically detected by 2012R2 and drivers installed, but the 0YT674 shows up in Device Manager as 4 ports with yellow exclamation mark icon.

My solution was simply to "manually" add the driver. I think the steps are something like ..

From Device Manager, open "network adapters" to get the NIC list.
Right click on the offending NIC, select "update driver software"
Select "Browse my computer"
Select "let me pick from a list of device drivers"
Select "network adapter" from the list
From the Manufacturer list, select "Intel Corporation", from the Network Adapter list, select "Intel Gigabit VT Quad port".

I think that was it ... repeat for the other 3 ports.

BTW, I didn't see this behavior in ESXI, the 0YT674 is recognized and used without fuss.

 

[britcowboy]

I'm not sure if this is the same problem that you have, but just in case ..

I have a couple of different Dell quad port cards. Physically they look the same, but one has a Dell p/n 0K828C and the other is Dell p/n 0YT674. The 0K828C is automatically detected by 2012R2 and drivers installed, but the 0YT674 shows up in Device Manager as 4 ports with yellow exclamation mark icon.

My solution was simply to "manually" add the driver. I think the steps are something like ..

From Device Manager, open "network adapters" to get the NIC list.
Right click on the offending NIC, select "update driver software"
Select "Browse my computer"
Select "let me pick from a list of device drivers"
Select "network adapter" from the list
From the Manufacturer list, select "Intel Corporation", from the Network Adapter list, select "Intel Gigabit VT Quad port".

I think that was it ... repeat for the other 3 ports.

BTW, I didn't see this behavior in ESXI, the 0YT674 is recognized and used without fuss.

Heya,

I followed your instructions, but I was getting the same symptoms - however, my new switch arrived, a HP ProCurve 1810g-24, because my old switch was starting to slow down, as soon as I plugged my NIC into that switch, everything worked perfectly! So it seems the old switch was causing problems, my internal NIC had no problem getting gigabit link from it though, but I expect the Intel NIC, being server grade, decided it best to downgrade to 100mbits as it must have not thought the link stable! So it's fixed, thanks for your help!