Intel 4-Port NIC Unknown

[Krowten]

I recently installed VMware vSphere 4 ESXi Dell Customized on a Dell T610. I used the Dell Customized build, 181792. This server has the 2 onboard Broadcom NICs and a 4 Port 1Gbe Intel NIC. After the install, I noticed that the Intel NIC was not showing up.

So I used the host update tool and installed the Intel NIC drivers (vmware-esx-drivers-net-igb_400.1.3.19.12.1-1.0.4.164009.185976). These installed fine and when I rebooted, I see the 4 NICs. But instead of listening the Brand/Model above the NICs, it shows them as "Unknown".

Is this anything to be concerned about? What would it show the card this way? I'm not entirely sure what chip it has on it, all I know is the Dell part:

"Intel Quad port x4 PCIe copper GbE NIC Card ( P/n- H092P )"

As a side question, I went with the Dell customized build as oppose to using the generate 4.0 U1. What are the pros/cons to using the vendor customized builds? I'm assuming of course management agents. But is there any downside? Any reason why I would want to use the generic build instead?

Thanks.

Matt

[Dave_Mishchenko · Accepted solution]

For drivers and display names there are 2 files used by ESXi. /etc/vmware/simple.map tells ESXi which driver to load for which PCI devices. /etc/vmware/pci.ids is used to populate display data in the vSphere client, for the vCLI and at tho console. Your issue is likely that the correct data is missing in pci.ids and it's merely a cosmetic issue. As long as the devices have been assigned a vmnic id and the driver has loaded properly then things will work fine.

It's best to stick with the vender specific install image as you get the best CIM providers for the hardware. The downside is that these specific ISOs tend to lag a bit behind in terms of their release date. Updates that you install will include vendor specific CIM providers so once you've used the vendor install image you'll be OK to use the regular firmware updates.




Dave

VMware Communities User Moderator

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Do you have a system or PCI card working with VMDirectPath? Submit your specs to the Unofficial VMDirectPath HCL.

[Krowten]

Thanks for the info.

I actually called Dell about it. They were not sure and ended up contacting VMware. They hadn't had any calls on this yet (I guess it was a pretty new card for them).

So, it turns out, Dell actually had a Dell custom build for U1, it's available from Dell. I actually tried loading just the generic 4.0 U1 and then the Intel drivers, and low and behold, the label appeared correctly! But then since there was a specific Dell build, I decided to reload again with that and again, after loading the Intel drivers, the label appeared. I asked Dell what is different in the custom build, and they could not tell me. They claimed there was nothing different in it from the generic build (the embedded version for the usb key is different). There must be something in there though, because it is a different size and why would Dell issue one? I'm guessing it is what you say, just CIM updates. I wonder, is there any way to add a custom build over the top of an already loaded box? I have one Dell 2900 that I did not use the custom build on. If there are CIM updates, I'd love to have them. I just find it interesting that Dell couldn't even tell me what is different in the Dell customized build!

Thanks again for the info.

Matt