Installing HP NC365T (Intel 82580) Network Driver to VMware vSphere ESXi 4

Scenario:

Newly built VMware vSphere ESXi 4.1 host on HP ProLiant DL360 G7 hardware, fails to see the installed HP NC365T quad-port gigabit ethernet adapter

Walkthrough:

With VMware vSphere CLI (free download) already installed

1: Download the driver from VMware's website

Go to:

http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/datacenter_downloads/vmware_vsphere_4/4_0#drivers_tools

Or

Go to:

http://downloads.vmware.com

→ Datacenter Downloads VMware vSphere 4

→ Scroll down the webpage to Drivers & Tools

Expand Driver CDs and click on the Download button by -

VMware ESXi/ESXi 4.x Driver CD for Intel 82576 ,82580 and I350 Gigabit Ethernet Controller

- and follow the prompts to download the iso file.

2: Obtain the offline_bundle driver file from the iso

Three suggested ways to do this:

i: Use software like 7-Zip (free download) to extract file from iso (preferred method)

ii: Use software like daemon tools (free download) to mount the CD to client device

iii: Burn the iso and mount in the physical CD drive (least preferred method)

The desired file is called something like – INT-intel-lad-ddk-igb-3.0.18-offline_bundle-396986.zip

Place this in the “Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware vSphere CLI\bin” folder

3: Put VMware host to be updated into maintenance mode

4: Use the VMware vSphere CLI installed on a client device (laptop or workstation) to install the drivers

With this command:

vihostupdate.pl --server HOST_IP_ADDRESS --username root --install --bundle NAME_OF_OFFLINE_BUNDLE

Example:

Note: If you stay connected to the ESXi host with the vSphere client you will see the Install and Check complete

5: Reboot the host

The End!

Credits:

http://www.corypratt.com/technology/vmware/adding-hp-nc365t-drivers-to-vmware-esxi/

http://www.vmguru.nl/wordpress/2010/03/add-additional-drivers-to-esxi/