WilliamLam.com

  • About
    • About
    • Privacy
  • VMware Cloud Foundation
  • VKS
  • Homelab
    • Resources
    • Nested Virtualization
  • VMware Nostalgia
  • Apple
You are here: Home / Uncategorized / Thunderbolt Ethernet Adapter in Apple Mac Mini on ESXi 5

Thunderbolt Ethernet Adapter in Apple Mac Mini on ESXi 5

06.21.2012 by William Lam // 27 Comments

If you followed Apple's recent announcement at their WWDC conference then you would know that they just released a Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet adapter. So, why am I talking about this? Well if you are running ESXi 5 on an Apple Mac Mini like me, then you are probably wondering if you can get another network interface on the Mini as it only has a single network adapter. The answer is YES!

To get ESXi 5 to recognize the Thunderbolt adapter, you will need to download and install an additional Broadcom driver (tg3 3.123b.v50.1) or you can create a customized ISO with the driver built in using the steps outlined here for a new installation.

UPDATE (12/21): A custom ESXi ISO is no longer needed, you can use ESXi 5.0 Update 2 which includes the necessary driver to support Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter. Please take a look at this article here for the details.

If you are just installing the driver on an existing ESXi 5 installation, extract the offline bundle and upload to your ESXi host and run the following command:

esxcli software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/mini-local-datastore-1/tg3-3.123b.v50.1-offline_bundle-682322.zip

Here is the output from ESXCLI on how ESXi sees the Thunderbolt adapter:

As you can see, it shows up with no description for the device and this is the same when running lspci, it just shows up as a network controller from Broadcom. This is not a big deal, but I assume this has something to do with the high numbering of the vmnic instead of being vmnic1 it's vmnic32.

I also performed some basic network testing by yanking the ethernet cable on the onboard network adapter and ensured traffic continued to flow and vice versa with the other Thunderbolt adapter. Everything works beautifully and now you can have some network redundancy built into your Mac Mini or if you need the throughput for all those VMs you plan on running 😉

Big thanks to Randy K. for hooking me up with a Thunderbolt adapter!

 

More from my site

  • Running ESXi 5.0 & 5.1 on 2012 Mac Mini 6,2
  • That's so cool! Running ESXi 5.0 & 5.1 on Apple Mac Mini
  • Quick Tip - Cloning Mac OS X VMs with unique serial numbers in vCloud Director
  • How to change hardware serial number for Mac OS X Guest?
  • Can You Backup & Restore Apple Mac OS X Guests Using vSphere Data Protection (VDP)?

Categories // Uncategorized Tags // apple, mac, mini, osx, thunderbolt, vSphere 5.0

Comments

  1. *protectedpoornerd says

    06/21/2012 at 8:29 pm

    how stable is it? Do you notice any speed difference?

    Reply
    • *protectedWilliam says

      06/21/2012 at 10:37 pm

      @poornerd,

      I just installed it last night, so hard to say. Though it's been running without any issues and it's a gigabit connection just like the on-board.

      Reply
  2. *protectedVMrandy says

    06/21/2012 at 11:05 pm

    Sweet sauce!

    Reply
  3. *protectedAnonymous says

    07/05/2012 at 12:05 am

    hi i put the zip file in my drivers folder on datastore1 and come up with this error

    esxcli software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/drivers/tg3-3.123b.v50.1-682322.zip

    ~ # esxcli software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/drivers/tg3-3.123b.v50.1-682322.zip
    [MetadataDownloadError]
    Could not download from depot at zip:/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/drivers/tg3-3.123b.v50.1-682322.zip?index.xml, skipping (('zip:/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/drivers/tg3-3.123b.v50.1-682322.zip?index.xml', '', 'Error extracting index.xml from /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/drivers/tg3-3.123b.v50.1-682322.zip: "There is no item named \'index.xml\' in the archive"'))
    url = zip:/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/drivers/tg3-3.123b.v50.1-682322.zip?index.xml
    Please refer to the log file for more details.

    can you help please

    Reply
    • *protectedWilliam says

      07/05/2012 at 9:22 pm

      You need to extract the "offline bundle" from that zip file. The file is called "tg3-3.123b.v50.1-offline_bundle-682322.zip"

      Reply
    • *protectedMengy007 says

      08/23/2012 at 5:23 am

      Remember that you also have to copy the file to /var/log/vmware as well.

      cp tg3-3.123b.v50.1-offline_bundle-682322.zip /var/log/vmware

      Reply
    • *protectedXIANLEE78 says

      02/13/2013 at 8:15 pm

      use the long name for the datastore instead of the "friendly" name and then there is no need to "also have a copy in /var/log/vmware" and you will not get this error.

      This works for installing from the zip files; updates, OMSA, etc.

      /vmfs/volumes/Support
      (Support being my datastores friendly name)
      /vmfs/volumes/50368202-aa233c63-881b-001e4f29beac
      (this is same datastore but the long name instead of friendly)

      Reply
  4. *protectedAnonymous says

    07/24/2012 at 6:24 pm

    Lets say I don't want to use the thunderbolt ethernet adapter, Can I use the thunderbolt storage instead?

    Reply
    • *protectedDaniel says

      07/25/2012 at 12:54 am

      Likely not; thunderbolt is basically passing through pci-e traffic. The reason the NIC works is due to the Broadcom driver. So if you wanted thunderbolt storage to work e.g Promise, you would need to install the drivers for that RAID controller 😉

      Reply
  5. *protectedAnonymous says

    07/25/2012 at 7:14 pm

    thats a bummer. Although, I am hoping that new version of esxi will have thunderbolt storage functionality. For now I will take the dual nics via thunderbolt.

    Reply
    • *protectedDaniel says

      07/26/2012 at 12:18 am

      It would be nice, but I'm not sure if it is VMware's focus. Remember, Thunderbolt is just PCI-e traffic, so connecting a Promise or other system would be the same as direct attached storage. This goes away from a shared-storage model i.e. benefits of vMotion. Also, VMware only officially supports Mac on Xserve which doesn't have Thunderbolt. I realize that some PC motherboards are coming out with Thunderbolt, but I wouldn't expect storage to be a big thing. http://bit.ly/nJ1dPy has a good article explaining Thunderbolt storage in the enterprise.

      Reply
  6. *protectedDaniel says

    07/30/2012 at 2:20 am

    This really makes me consider to use the Mac Mini at home with pfSense running as one of the vm's. Assign the thunderbolt as a WAN/Outside interface and then assign that interface as a WAN to pfSense!

    Reply
  7. *protectedsvenc says

    09/05/2012 at 9:23 pm

    anybody else facing the problem with the Thunderboldt Ethernet adapter stopping to work in OS X 10.7.3 (as guest OS)?
    I added the TB adapter as a second EtherNet interface to the guest OS (10.7.3 Server). After a restart of the guest OS I need to switch hardware settings in OS X from "manual" to "automatic" and vice versa to activate the interface again.

    Thanks in advance

    Sven

    Reply
  8. *protectediiToby says

    10/01/2012 at 10:38 pm

    I have just installed this, works great now allows me to connect up a dvs and have a Virtual ESXi running on my Mac talk to my Mac Mini.

    Work great for anything that requires a restart of the Hypervisor

    iiToby

    Reply
  9. *protectedGabi says

    10/03/2012 at 3:55 pm

    Why oh why did I have to come across this !!

    Now I am going to have to get a couple ! Damn it.

    Reply
  10. *protectedAnonymous says

    10/30/2012 at 3:42 pm

    I have installed the thunderbolt ethernet adapter and it has been working great for couple of months now.

    Reply
  11. *protectedMuhammad Abdul Mateen Khatri says

    12/07/2012 at 1:13 pm

    It handled everything we threw at it -- line art, 35mm negatives, slides, prints -- rather effortlessly, regardless of which scanning application we favored at the moment. Not only is the i800 versatile, but it's also affordable at just $399.99 list. Dmtech

    Reply
  12. *protectedAnonymous says

    06/03/2013 at 6:57 am

    Just an update. I have the Promise Pegasus R6 WORKING in ESXi 5.1u1
    Just install Promise drivers named stex-4.07.0000.75-542120 and it picks up the Pegasus no problem.

    Reply
    • *protectedAnonymous says

      08/29/2013 at 8:54 pm

      I want to do the same thing but I have a Drobo mini and a 5d - anyone been able to get this running under esxi?

      Reply
    • *protectedAnonymous says

      08/30/2013 at 3:47 pm

      DL'd stex-4.07.0000.75-542120 from vmware - actual vib is scsi-stex-4.07.0000.75-1OEM.500.0.0.472560.x86_64.vib

      does not pick up pegasus anywhere - any tips?

      Reply
  13. *protectedAnonymous says

    08/30/2013 at 4:01 pm

    never mind - apparently rescan doesn't rescan ... must reboot

    Reply
  14. *protectedShelterd Life says

    01/09/2014 at 10:48 am

    This storage place have the best pricing around the area. (I shopped around a little) and they are the most organized too! Also went in last weekend to pick up boxes and it was pretty busy again.
    self storage in Rosebury

    Reply
  15. *protectedMatteo Marchetti says

    04/23/2014 at 3:45 pm

    are you aware about Thunderbolt to FC or Thunderbolt to PCIe devices which work with VMware? I would like to use some fiber channel storage with MacMinis

    Reply
    • William Lam says

      04/24/2014 at 12:29 am

      I'm not aware of any, does not mean it doesn't work but I've just not heard of anyone mentioning this before

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Installing ESXi 5.1 Update 1 on Mac Mini is Now a Breeze! (No Custom ISO/patches Needed!) | virtuallyGhetto says:
    02/28/2014 at 9:03 pm

    […] long necessary! In addition, having the latest driver also provides out of the box support for the Thunderbolt ethernet adapter which is great if you are looking to add an additional ethernet connection to the Apple Mac […]

    Reply
  2. VSAN 6.2 (vSphere 6.0 Update 2) homelab on 6th Gen Intel NUC | virtuallyGhetto says:
    03/03/2016 at 9:59 am

    […] configurations by allowing you to add an additional network adapter which leverages the built-in Thunderbolt adapter which many other similar form factors lack. Having said that all that, one major limitation […]

    Reply
  3. Working USB Ethernet Adapter (NIC) for ESXi | virtuallyGhetto says:
    03/22/2016 at 5:42 am

    […] additional IO connectors like a Thunderbolt port which the Mac Mini includes and can support a Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter. I think this is probably the only downside to the Intel NUC platform which has […]

    Reply

Thanks for the comment!Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Search

Thank Author

Author

William is Distinguished Platform Engineering Architect in the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Division at Broadcom. His primary focus is helping customers and partners build, run and operate a modern Private Cloud using the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) platform.

Connect

  • Bluesky
  • Email
  • GitHub
  • LinkedIn
  • Mastodon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Vimeo

Recent

  • Programmatically accessing the Broadcom Compatibility Guide (BCG) 05/06/2025
  • Quick Tip - Validating Broadcom Download Token  05/01/2025
  • Supported chipsets for the USB Network Native Driver for ESXi Fling 04/23/2025
  • vCenter Identity Federation with Authelia 04/16/2025
  • vCenter Server Identity Federation with Kanidm 04/10/2025

Advertisment

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

Copyright WilliamLam.com © 2025