SOLVED: Dell R740 and the X520 NIC on 8.0U3 - not working

[DavidRa]

I'm sure I'm missing something ridiculously simple here.

• Bog-standard R740 configured for UEFI boot
• Firmware all up to date AFAIK, updated via the lifecycle controller using the X520 NIC
• NIC daughterboard is the combo X520/I350
• ESXi 8.0U3 with the Dell vendor package.

When ESXi boots, the X520 NICs are detected but the driver does not load. For example:



The vmware compat guide claims the driver is in-box - it identifies as an 82599 with VID 8086 and DID 10fb which matches this device on the compat guide: Compatibility Guide.

Now what I notice above is that the ixgben drivers don't match the version in the compat guide, but ... they're later on box so seems fine to me. I did also look for updated drivers, and found one at version 1.20 - but installing those and restarting doesn't change the result.

Any suggestions on what other logs I can look at for the problem? Or ... if you've built one and you know which sodding driver to install can you let me know?

 

[CyklonDX]

this is the daughter card? 0C63DV?

You need intel sfp's installed to x520's for them to show,
if they are, and they are intel branded - you potentially need to flash updated firmware onto each sfp.

Intel NIC Family Version 19.5.0 Firmware for I350, I354, X520, X540, and X550 adapters | Driver Details | Dell US

then also try using this driver

Broadcom | VMware | Hardware Compatibility Guide

Find compatibility information for Broadcom and VMware products. Search our database for hardware compatibility details.

compatibilityguide.broadcom.com

// i use those for all my intel 10gig 520/710's

https://www.fs.com/products/71385.html?attribute=71404&id=3834804

 

[DavidRa]

Oh I'd completely forgotten about SFP locking on those NICs. Applied the EEPROM bit flip and it worked immediately thanks. Turns out there was an error in vmkernel.log which was obvious once I knew what to look for.