Sometimes we need to upgrade our ESXi hosts with installed 3rd vSphere Installation Bundle (VIBs). Before I show you how to customize ESXi image (using Image Builder), let's clarify some important things about VIBs. VIB is comprised of three parts:. A file archive - contains the files that make up the VIB.
An XML descriptor file - describes the contents of the VIB. A signature file - is an electronic signature used to verify the level of trust associated with the VIB.
There are four acceptance levels:. VMwareCertified: VIBs created and tested by VMware. VMwareAccepted: VIBs created by a VMware partners that are approved by VMware. PartnerSupported: VIBs created and tested by a trusted VMware partner.
CommunitySupported: VIBs created by individuals or partners outside of the VMware partner program. ESXi image customization - prerequisites There are two prerequisites:. 2 thoughts on “ How to create customized ESXi image: ISO or zip (bundle file) including 3rd VIB?”.
Swapnil Thanks for this post it is really helpful.i am going to try it. However can you please suggest from where i should download 'offline bundle (.zip file) including VIB(s)' We are having Cisco UCS i can see the file 'VEM564104-BG-release.zip' but in your screenshot it shouws 2015 file which i am not seeing from where i can get it? Kindly suggest?
Also how do we know which VEM file we will need or it can be any and depneds on Vendor?
If you need to install drivers in an ESXi host, this is how you do it: Background Information Recently I was building an ESXi host that used a CNA (Converged Network Adapter) for all network and storage, including for the management network. The specific card I was using was a QLogic QLE8262 CNA. Normally if you don’t have a NIC driver, the installation will fail as it won’t detect a network card. In this instance however, I did have onboard NICs available, however in my environment these are not being used and hence had not been patched. Once ESXi was built, I went to configure the Management Network, however there were no connected NICs in the network adapter settings of the Configure Management Network section in the DCUI. There are two solutions to this problem:. 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 – Install drivers in an ESXi host The following steps document how to install drivers into an ESXi host using the ESXi Shell from the DCUI. I had to do it this way as I didn’t have network access to the host (other than via out-of-band management).
If you have network access to your host, then you could simply do the install via SSH, following a similar process to the steps below but instead of mounting an ISO you could simply copy the drivers to the local datastore or something like that. Here are the steps I took to resolve my issue:. Enable ESXi Shell. From the DCUI, press F2 to customise the system. Enter your root credentials when prompted. From the menu, select Troubleshooting Options.
Enable ESXi Shell. From the DCUI, press Alt+F1 to access the ESXi Shell. Log in with root credentials.
Using your out-of-band management attach the ISO that contains the drivers. If you don’t have an ISO file you can create one using the Img Burn software. List all of the CD-ROMs available to ESXi by running ls /dev/cdrom. Write down the results as you will need this later on. Note: You might see multiple results – document all of them. Example: mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0.
Mount the ISO so that you can access the driver files, by running the following: vmkloadmod iso9660 /sbin/vsish -e set /vmkModules/iso9660/mount mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0 Note: If this doesn’t work try the other CDROMs from step 6. Once successful, your CD-ROM will be mounted with the path of /vmfs/volumes/. In my instance my CD-ROM mount path was /vmfs/volumes/DOWNLOADS. If you are not sure what your CD-ROM label is, you find out by running: ls /vmfs/volumes/. Next we need to install the drivers. To do this you will need to know the exact path to the driver and the name of the driver VIB file. To install a driver in ESXi, run the following command: esxcli software vib install -v /vmfs/volumes/DOWNLOADS/VMWESX/QLNATIVE.VIB.
Repeat the above step to install any additional drivers you require. Press Alt+F2 to exit the ESXi Shell. You will now return to the DCUI. From here, reboot the host And that is pretty much it. Hope this helps. Hi Sohail, You can use the ls command in linux to list all files and directories in a folder (or in this case your cd-rom drive). This is essentially browsing the cd-rom (or iso) file via command line.
Then if your VIB file is stored within a sub-folder you can run ls to browse the contents of the sub-folder. Repeat for all subsequent folders. Alternatively you can navigate into the folder by running cd.
Last week I have been struggling with the installation of a vSphere 4 infrastructure on Dell hardware at a Belgium client site. I have done many many many VMware installations and encountered my fair share of issues but apart from the HP USB sticks the hardware never gave me this much trouble. It all started with a very difficult BIOS/firmware upgrade which, after various downloads and trials, ended with an old-school DOS boot USB and a DOS based BIOS update. Real 1980’s stuff. With this fixed I installed all ESX hosts and left for the hotel, ready to start the configuration the next day. However, when I started with the first ESX host and wanted to configure the network, I noticed that I only had eight NICs when I should have had twelve. We use Dell PowerEdge R805 servers with two Intel quad port 82576 Gigabit Ethernet Adapters, the first card was already in the server, the second card we added just before the installation.
At first I suspected the expansion slot and riser board and tried swapping PCI-e x8 and PCI-e x4 slots but with no success. But by swapping the NICs we noticed that the original NIC worked but the NIC we added just before the installation did not. Further investigation showed that although the NICs were identical with regards to type, chipset, layout, etc, the revisions where a little different. Searching the VMware Support website we for the Intel 82575 and 82576 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter. Although we designed the virtual infrastructure with ESXi hosts in mind we used standard ESX 4 to check if the driver CD would fix the issue and have the additional four NICs pop up. And they did, YES! But next up, our next and hopefully final challenge.
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.
That’s all, so how do you add additional drivers? The driver CD manual combined with a little help from a colleague (thanks AJ) did the trick. After the installation configure the management network on one of the functioning NICs, connect using the vSphere client and put the host in maintenance mode. After that use the to install the additional driver from the driver CD (inserted in the client containing the vSphere CLI) using the following command: ‘vihostupdate.pl –server IP address –username root –install –bundle CD/DVD: offline-bundle INT-intel-lad-ddk-igb-1.3.19.12.1-offlinebundle-185976.zip‘ Reboot the ESX host and enjoy the four extra NICs!
For easy reference follows a step by step How To: Step 1) Download the from the VMware website. Step 2) Install the VMware vSphere Command-Line Interface. Step 3) Connect to the ESXi server through the VI client you wish to inject the NIC drivers into.
Step 4) Put the ESXi host in maintenance mode. This can be done by connecting through the VI client with the ESXi server. Step 5) Inject the NIC drivers using the CLI C: Program Files (x86) VMware VMware vSphere CLI binvihostupdate.pl –server 172.17.101.13 –username root –install –bundle D: offline-bundle INT-intel-lad-ddk-igb-1.3.19.12.1-offlinebundle-185976.zip You will see in the VI Client that the driver is installed.
Step 6) Reboot the host. Step 7) Check the total number of network adapters through the VI client. Under Configuration Tab Network Adapters under hardware column.
Step 8 Install finished successful.
When you try to install VMware ESXi on some whitebox hardware that is not officially supported by VMware then your attempt might come to an unpleasant end after the installer presented the error message shown above. ESXi has in-box support for a limited number of network interface cards (NICs), and sadly a lot of consumer grade devices are not on the list.
Is this the end of the world? If you are a regular reader of my blog then you probably already know that help (and in some cases even rescue) is available.
However, I keep getting e-mails from people asking how to get their NIC xyz to work with ESXi. So I finally took the time to write down all the steps that you need to take and the options you have - just to point them here instead of giving the same answers per e-mail again and again. A very similar post of mine is - it is about a year old now and with 80k pageviews my most successful blog post ever.
Add Disk To Esxi 6.7
Let's see how this one goes. Before you proceed: Are you in a hurry, or just lazy, or do not like to fiddle around with creating customized ESXi ISOs? Then skip to step 7 at the bottom right now and forget the rest! You should also skip to step 7 now if your NIC is a wireless device or connected through a USB port. There is no way to get these working in ESXi, the following steps only apply to PCI based LAN controllers: 1. Find out your device's name and PCI ID The first and one of the most important steps is to clearly identify your NIC's brand and model.
The key here is the unique PCI vendor and device ID. There are multiple ways to find this out, and most of them involve booting the machine with another OS (Windows or Linux). But here is the easiest way that starts directly at the stuck ESXi installation process: When you see the nasty error message displayed at the top of this post then just hit Alt and F1 on your keyboard at the computer's console. You will be greeted with a login prompt: log in as root without a password (just hit Return at the password prompt). Now run the following command: lspci -v grep 'Class 0200' -B 1 If you do not use an English keyboard you may find it hard to type this command (esp. The special characters -, ' and ), because the English keyboard mapping is in effect regardless of what your layout is. You can change the effective layout by running a command like localcli system settings keyboard layout set -l German This will switch to the German layout.
You can list all available layouts and their correct label to be used with the -l switch by running localcli system settings keyboard layout list Alternatively you can keep the English layout and enter all special characters using: - is code 45is code 124 and ' is code 34. If you finally managed to type the lspci command line correctly then the output will look similar to this: 0000:02:00.0 Ethernet controller Network controller: Realtek Realtek 8168 Gigabit Ethernet Class 0200: 10ec:8168 Here you are: (In this example) you have a Realtek 8168 Gigabit NIC with the PCI ID id 10ec:8168. A special case: Realtek (and some Marvell) NICs and ESXi 5.5 or 6.0 A while back I posted about. They are still available in ESXi 5.0/5.1 and thus in the VMware Online depot.
So it is quite easy to create a customized ESXi 5.5 installation ISO that includes these ESXi 5.1 drivers (they still work with ESXi 5.5). Use my script for that, and run it like this:. ESXi-Customizer-PS-v2.3.ps1 -v55 -load net-r8168,net-r8169,net-sky2 This will cover the following adapters (PCI IDs):.
net-r8168: Realtek 8168 Gigabit Ethernet (10ec:8168). net-r8169: Realtek RTL-8110SC/8169SC Gigabit Ethernet (10ec:8167), Realtek RTL8169 PCI Gigabit Ethernet Controller (10ec:8169). net-sky2: Marvell 88E8040 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller (11ab:4354), Marvell 88E8053 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (11ab:4362).
This example will find a version of the driver that is newer than the one that ships with ESXi and thus supports some more Intel NICs (like the I217-LM and -V). If you cannot find your NIC's exact PCI ID in the V-Front Online Depot then you are almost out of luck. Proceed to step 5 then.
Create your custom ESXi installation ISO If you have found a suitable driver for your NIC in the V-Front Online Depot then you can easily built a customized ESXi 5.5 installation ISO that includes this driver by running my script like this:. ESXi-Customizer-PS-v2.3.ps1 -v55 -vft -load net-e1000e This will build an ESXi installation ISO with the latest 5.5 patch level and (in this example) the community supported net-e1000e driver included.
An example for ESXi 6.0 could look like this:. ESXi-Customizer-PS-v2.3.ps1 -v60 -vft -load net55-r8168 This will build an ESXi 6.0 installation ISO with the latest patch level and (in this example) the community supported up-to-date Realtek 8168 driver. Google is your friend If you haven't found anything in the V-Front Online Depot then there is still a small chance that someone has already created an ESXi driver for your device that I have not (yet) added to the V-Front Online Depot. The only way to find out is using your favorite Internet search engine! But please search specifically for a VMware ESXi driver for your NIC!
Some people just search for a Linux driver in the false belief that you can use Linux drivers with ESXi. ESXi drivers can be derived from Linux drivers, but this involves modifying and re-compiling the source code, and packaging it into the appropriate format (VIB file or Offline Bundle)! If you are lucky and find an ESXi driver for your NIC then download the VIB file or Offline Bundle and create a customized ESXi installation ISO with it. You can do that with my script. Copy the downloaded file to an empty directory (e.g. C: TEMP) and run the script like this:. ESXi-Customizer-PS-v2.3.ps1 -pkgDir C: TEMP (And be nice and tell me that you have found a community developed ESXi driver that is not yet in the V-Front Online Depot, so that I can add it there!) 6.
Be bold: Create your own driver! Still failing? Your second last chance to get ESXi up and running with your whitebox is to create an ESXi driver for your unsupported NIC on your own! Warning: This is not a task for the average VMware (or whatever IT) administrator!
You need Linux developer skills for this, optimally you are a kernel hacker. Are you bold?
Then go and read my quick start guide! But please do not come back to me with questions on how to set up the build environment and overcome compilation errors - I do not have any skills in this. Always easy: Go and get a compatible controller! The one thing that will always help you to overcome the 'No Network Adapters' error is simply getting another NIC that is supported by ESXi out-of-the-box.
A lot of Intel Gigabit NICs will work, and there are affordable models available, even dual or quad port devices. But before you purchase a new one be sure to check the if it is supported by the current ESXi release. Here is an example of how to use the search mask to find all Intel NICs supported by ESXi 5.5 U2. Searching the VMware HCL (click to enlarge) You can also use the new of the HCL to check if your NIC of interest is included here. Yet another option: Pass your NIC through to a VM If you were forced to get a new officially supported NIC to get ESXi up and running then you may wonder if you can still make good use of the other unsupported NIC that sits there in your box without a proper ESXi driver. You can try to pass the NIC through to a single VM using PCI passthrough (aka VMDirectPath).
This requires a system that is modern enough to support Intel VT-d (resp. AMD IOMMU), and describes how to configure ESXi for this: Enable passthrough of a PCI NIC as per KB1010789 The host PCI device must then be added to the hardware configuration of a VM which will see the NIC as-is (instead of the standard emulated or paravirtualized vNIC types) so you will need a suitable NIC driver for your guest OS, but it shouldn't be too hard to find that. If your unsupported NIC is attached via USB then you need to use USB passthrough to make it available to a VM. This setup is described in.
With the most recent ESXi 5.5 patch (of Oct 2014) this also works with host connected USB 3.0 devices, but this requires some tweaking: In I already described how to permanently enable the required xHCI driver in ESXi. I hope that you find this guide helpful - if you think that some important information is missing then please comment! Anonymous Hi Andreas, I already done this two weeks ago! But, no response.
So, at time, I'm doing an effort for find the source code of this driver, or suggest to someone to recompile the driver using the last version of the Realtek source driver. The reason because the driver don't work with new chip revisions is the 'microcode' included in the driver. It is updated in each driver version, and not compatible with newer chips. In any case, I suggest to ALL DEVELOPERS that creates communitty drivers for ESXi that they publish the source code.
Like this: Or including the source in the VIB file. JohnU 'booting it with 2 GB RAM will result in the false error message that no network adapter can be detected.' I wish I'd read the comments on this page earlier!
I was used to editing upgradeprecheck.py to get ESXi to install with. Jaroslav Hello, thanks for a great website.
I'm trying ESXi 6 on mini-itx motherboard Gigabyte GA-1037UN-EU and I have problem with built-in NICs. There are two Realtek NICs 8168 (id 10ec:8168).
I got them working using the net55-r8168 package. BUT - both NICs works on 100 Mbps/FD only. I change the settings in vCenter to 1000Mbps/FD but it still runs 100 Mbps (reboot didn't help).
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This problem is not related to switch port settings/cable - for example previous Xpenology installation or Xenserver installation work on 1 Gbps without any problem. Any idea what can cause this and how to solve this? Thanks a lot. Anonymous I have done that, when i create the new custom ISO to include the VIB for the adapters, the VIB does not get added to the iso, it does the other VIB's i have but not that one. Here is a copy of the script i am using in PowerCLI:.
ESXI-Customizer-PS-v2.4.ps1 -v55 -vft -load net-e1000e,sata-xahci,cpu5-microcode,vmware-esx-dvfilter-maclearn -pkgDir C: Users (removed for Security Reasons) Desktop asmtdesk esxibootdrivefiles newesxiiso -outDir C: Users (removed for Security Reasons) Desktop asmtdesk esxibootdrivefiles newesxiiso newisowithdrivers -nsc The Vib it misses is vghetto-ax88179-esxi55u3.vib, which is the VIB for the adapters drivers. Anonymous Dear Andreas, I'm trying to create custom ISO with ESXI 6.0u2 with r8168 integrated, according your manual and tools you've provided. But, when I'm running ESXi-Customizer-PS-v2.5, I'm getting this: 'FATAL ERROR: VMware.VimAutomation.Core is not available as a module or snapin! It looks like there is no compatible version of PowerCLI installed!'
Powercli VMware-vSphere-CLI-6.0.0-2503617 installed. OS - Windows 8.1 Ent. PATH variables to Powercli - exists. Please advise. Thanks in advance.
Cosmozap you've got an awesome blog going here - i've learned a lot! Has anyone succeeded in getting esxi 5.5 or 6.x installing over ethernet (USB or thunderbolt) - or even getting the installer to recognize thunderbolt ethernet adapters? In my case (macbook air and macbook pro) the installer runs successfully, but as soon as the esxi kernel boots, it says that no supported network adapters were found.
Lspci -v shows only wireless, and thunderbolt ports, but no ethernet-adapter-on-thunderbolt. The latter.does. show up on the same laptops under OSX (with a PCI ID listed in the ESXi driver maps, even), but if the ESXi kernel can't see it on the PCI bus, it can't drive it. Any insights/pointers/experiences?
Anonymous Hello, I have a similar problem as Bart. I am not able to use the powershell script.
After some time I get WinError 10054. I already tried disabling Windows firewall and defender. Anonymous Thanks for the answer. I will test it within the next days and let you know.
For now I found a workaround and used PowerCLI to create the custom image manually as described here: If somebody wants to try this please note that you will also get the WinError 10054 when using the VMWare online depot. So you need to download the ESXi offline bundle manually from the VMWare Website. For me it also worked to download the offline bundle with PowerCLI but only NOT customized.
So I exported one of the standard profiles from VMWare with the Export-EsxImageProfile command to a zip file and then imported this one to the software depot to customize it.
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