Add Drivers To Esxi 6 Iso
I found information about install problems with the release of the NIC drivers of VMware ESXi 5.1 on Power Edge Dell Servers, the install stop with this error message 'No network adapters were detected'
HP servers have similar issues and they have their own version of EXSi 5.x
How I can add specific drivers to the ESXi ISO?
I found a way to add drivers to non supported NIC cards but this goes into the Hypervisor partition 'ESXi install' no into the ESXi ISO
Can i inject drivers into an iso file and how? That might be easier since i have the esxi 6.5 licenses from vmug.com. Or, how can i get Ryan Burke's method to work for me and can i use my vmug.com esxi licenses to upgrade from 6.0 to 6.5 since i have the 6.5 iso? Consider the case where you need to deploy ESXi to 10 new servers. The ideal course of action is to take your existing ESXi 6.5 ISO image and add to it the latest patches, updates, and drivers released to date.
2 Answers
If you're having a problem with a Dell server, use the Dell ESXi image, as it had the agents and monitoring hooks built-in.
It seems like you're trying to ask how to add drivers to ESXi on non-Dell/non-HP hardware. If that's the case...
Add Drivers To Esxi 6 Iso Update
ESXi is bootstrapped by a small Busybox installation. There are only so many device drivers that can be shipped and supported effectively. Many systems that don't seem ESXi-compatible can be made to be compatible by just adding supported storage and network controllers. It's difficult to find server-class hardware that isn't supported by ESXi. If you're in a bind, just buy an Intel E1000 network card to complete your installation.
The topic is old but if other people face the same problem:
I recently had the same issue , and could solve it following this blog's method:
It basically uses a script to inject the specified nic driver into the specified ESXi iso version. The article is very detailed.
However, I definitely agree with ewwhite;Using unsupported hardware should never be attempted in production environment.