I had several folks ask me about an updated USB 3.0 Ethernet Driver for ESXi 6.5, similar to what I had created for ESXi 5.5 and 6.0. There were some changes that came with ESXi 6.5 and thanks to Songtao, I was able to build a new driver. For those of you who are not familiar with this particular driver, I highly recommend you give this article here a read before proceeding any further. If you are interested in Realtek driver for ESXi 6.5, be sure to check out Jose's blog here for more info.
UPDATE (02/12/19) - A new VMware Native Driver for USB-based NICs has just been released for ESXi 6.5/6.7, please use this driver going forward. If you are still on ESXi 5.5/6.0, you can continue using the existing driver but please note there will be no additional development in the existing vmklinux-based driver.
UPDATE (04/23/18) - For folks who plan to upgrade or install ESXi 6.7, you can continue using the 6.5 driver. I've had several folks reach out and share there have not been any issues and upgrades will preserver the USB NIC driver or you can perform a fresh install and follow the steps below.
To use this new driver for ESXi 6.5, there are some additional steps that is required. Below are the instructions on how to install this on an ESXi 6.5 host.
Step 0 - Download the ESXi 6.5 USB Ethernet Adapter Driver VIB or ESXi 6.5 USB Ethernet Adapter Driver Offline Bundle and upload it to your ESXi host.
Step 1 - If you are upgrading from an existing ESXi 5.5 or 6.0 environment, the first thing you will want to do is uninstall the old driver by running the following command (specify the correct name of the driver):
esxcli software vib remove -n vghetto-ax88179-esxi60u2
Step 2 - Install the VIB by running the following ESXCLI command to install:
esxcli software vib install -v /vghetto-ax88179-esxi65.vib -f
Step 3 - Next, you will need to disable the USB native driver to be able to use this driver. To do so, run the following command:
esxcli system module set -m=vmkusb -e=FALSE
Step 4 - Lastly, for the changes to go into effect, you will need to reboot your ESXi host. Once your system has rebooted, it should now automatically load the USB Ethernet driver and you should see your USB Ethernet Adapter as shown in the screenshot below.
Step 5 - ESXi does not natively support USB NIC and upon a reboot, the USB NICs are not picked up until much later in the boot process which prevents them from being associated with VSS/VDS and their respective portgroups. To ensure things are connected properly after a reboot, you will need to add something like the following in /etc/rc.local.d/local.sh which re-links the USB NIC along with the individual portgroups as shown in the example below.
esxcfg-vswitch -L vusb0 vSwitch0 esxcfg-vswitch -M vusb0 -p "Management Network" vSwitch0 esxcfg-vswitch -M vusb0 -p "VM Network" vSwitch0
You will also need to run /sbin/auto-backup.sh to ensure the configuration changes are saved and then you can issue a reboot to verify that everything is working as expected.
Did you ever resolve the issues of not getting full Gigabit thru-put?
Great stuff William.
Just one point: With the acceptance level changed to CommunitySupported, on both 6.0 and 6.5 the -f flag is not required.
It is quite annoying that the force flag is required for ESXi 51/5.5 as it interferes with any other VIB installations, including updates to the embedded host client...
Just a note that you do have to reattach the uplink if you are using this on a VDS. Not sure about a standard switch
Thanks for this. Tested as working on 4th gen Intel NUC with a Vantec adapter. Is there a way to automatically disable the USB native driver if we want to add the USB 3.0 Ethernet Adapter VIB to a custom ISO?
Does this mean that it is mutually exclusive to enable both usb bus for an esx boot and the usb to ethernet adapter?
Thanks...
Working fine for me with realtek r8152 find on Jose's blog . Thanks for the help William 🙂
William thanks for the great info and driver support. I did use the earlier version when I built my first NUC 6th Gen and all went well running ver6.0. Now I am planning to upgrade to 6.5 and still new to managing the esx environment. You show above how to uninstall the old driver and install the new for 6.5. My two questions I have are this, should those steps be done pre or post upgrade to 6.5 from 6.0? And second question which I could probable search for and find elsewhere but I will still ask, I have run upgrades before only from local keyboard,screen and booting from cdrom. Can you share the steps to do the upgrade to 6.5 from 6.0 remotely if possible or a link to an article post you like or wrote that shows those steps for newbs like myself? Thanks again.
I changed the level of acceptance, does not work (CommunitySupported)
[root@esxi:~] esxcli software vib install -v /vghetto-ax88179-esxi65.vib
[InstallationError]
('virtuallyGhetto_bootbank_vghetto-ax88179-esxi65_6.0.0-1.0.0', 'The VIB virtuallyGhetto_bootbank_vghetto-ax88179-esxi65_6.0.0-1.0.0 does not contain a signature.')
vibs = virtuallyGhetto_bootbank_vghetto-ax88179-esxi65_6.0.0-1.0.0
Please refer to the log file for more details.
Please have a look again at Step 2 for the options needed to install
For any one else having this error, the -f is for force. Run it without, get the error and then run it with the -f switch.
Hello i am still facing this issue, i think i am missing something, i am a begginer on esxi.
When you say "-f switch" you mean this command:
esxcli software vib install -v https://s3.amazonaws.com/virtuallyghetto-download/vghetto-ax88179-esxi65.vib -f switch
this is what i get
[root@localhost:~] esxcli software vib install -v https://s3.amazonaws.com/virtuallyghetto-download/vghetto-ax88179-esxi65.vib -f
[InstallationError]
('virtuallyGhetto_bootbank_vghetto-ax88179-esxi65_6.0.0-1.0.0', 'The VIB virtuallyGhetto_bootbank_vghetto-ax88179-esxi65_6.0.0-1.0.0 does not contain a signature.')
vibs = virtuallyGhetto_bootbank_vghetto-ax88179-esxi65_6.0.0-1.0.0
Please refer to the log file for more details.
Hi
I'm trying to load the vghetto-ax88179-esxi65.vib on esxi6.7 and I'm getting the below error when executing this command 'esxcli software vib install -v /vghetto-ax88179-esxi65.vib -f'
[InstallationError]
('virtuallyGhetto_bootbank_vghetto-ax88179-esxi65_6.0.0-1.0.0', 'The VIB virtuallyGhetto_bootbank_vghetto-ax88179-esxi65_6.0.0-1.0.0 does not contain a signature.')
vibs = virtuallyGhetto_bootbank_vghetto-ax88179-esxi65_6.0.0-1.0.0
Please refer to the log file for more details.
Can you help me please as I'm pulling my hair out
Can you check, if in EFI you are not using Secure Boot option? If using Secure boot, you will not be able to install any non-signed VIB.
Thank you! That helped!
Any idea if this will have an impact on those of us that boot ESXi from a USB stick?
No impact, I boot my ESXi hosts just like many others using USB as well.
Hello William, i use your driver 88179 under esxi6.5 it works great wih windows 7 or windows 2012 virtual vms but the nic hangs with windows 10 en windows 2016 can you solve the problem kind regards Ewout
Ok it works !!!!!
Yes after installing the VIB it booted up fine mate. Sadly it doesn't appear to get detected with my AsRock 970 Extreme 4 based whitebox 🙁
my NIC's are based on the Startech chipset from what I can gather
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/222356071278?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&var=521220153577&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Thanks for your efforts regardless mate I knew this would always be a gamble
Can you run "lsusb" and check the vendor/device ID reported? I don't think this adapter is based on the ASIX chipset. The seller claims it works on Mac OS X without a driver, so it might be a Realtek based adapter...
Balls!!! You are indeed correct mate, its listed as "Realtek Semiconductor" 🙁 This other listing ...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Universal-High-Speed-USB-3-0-Gigabit-LAN-Ethernet-Adapter-for-PC-MAC-Black-/381765925795?hash=item58e305bba3:g:8R0AAOSwGtRX0x7o
Led me to believe it was using the AX88179 chipset, dont suppose anyone knows of a VIB for the USB realtek?
Hmm found this one ...
http://www.devtty.uk/homelab/USB-Ethernet-driver-for-ESXi-6.5/
Its RealTek so might have a chance will let you know, but its late here now.
Whoop! Whoop! It's alive!!! Detected as a R8152 hope its just as good as AX88179 I thought it was lol 🙂
I was going to point you at the Realtek driver, but since you found it already it's all good... ????
I'm having a weird issue. If i add it using the CLI with "esxcli network vswitch standard uplink add -u vusb0 -v vSwitch1", the VMs on that vSwitch don't see any traffic. The adapter shows up as an uplink. I have to add it from the UI for it to work.
Hmm having another issue now, if I add the USB uplink to any vSwitch DVS or Standard the uplink only works for around a minute or so 🙁
Litterally its seems like anuy longer than 60 seconds and no data passes on the switch attached to that uplink. Dont suppose anyone has any idea's
I'm having a very similar problem. Solution is do down/up the NIC by esxcli network nic down/up -n vusb#
Its only a temporary fix, however. The NIC eventually stops passing traffic after a while.
I have the same problem too. It works and pass traffic for a bit, after awhile Startec usb nic no longer pass traffic.
someone had found any solution? I have the same problem with my two I3 NUC 6th Gen. Nics works for an hour or two and no longer pass traffic :(.
I had similar non responsive issues on my i5 6th gen NUC. It would work fine for a few minutes and then loose network connectivity. What I finally found out is that the disk was very slow to write to with the 6.5 upgrade due to an issue in the vmw_ahci driver. I disabled it and rebooted my host. Has been rock solid since then with and up time of 22 days and not network loss.
See http://www.nxhut.com/2016/11/fix-slow-disk-performance-vmwahci.html?m=1 for details.
Great article and fantastic job, and it works fine (intel NUC SkullCanyon, StarTech dual ehernet adapter), except..
When rebooting the NUC, everything seems good, except the interface is actually not working (no ping, nothing)
I have to either edit/save manually on ESXi administration interface the port group connected to the vswitch with the USB uplink, or in command line by removing/reattaching the vusb nic to the vswitch.
Weirdly, it doesn't work when trying to do the same command line so in local.sh file (even with async delay)
when launching command line in local.sh, outcome in log is:
2017-02-01T18:10:36.020Z: [netCorrelator] 428790423us: [vob.net.pg.uplink.transition.up] Uplink:vusb0 is up. Affected portgroup: pg_FO. 0 uplinks up
And thru portal or command line, it seomhow detect the 1 uplink, and that triggers connectivity event..
2017-02-01T19:15:37.367Z: [netCorrelator] 4330138236us: [vob.net.pg.uplink.transition.up] Uplink:vusb0 is up. Affected portgroup: pg_FO. 1 uplinks up
2017-02-01T19:15:39.001Z: [netCorrelator] 4331771900us: [esx.clear.net.connectivity.restored] Network connectivity restored on virtual switch "vswitch_FO", portgroups: "pg_FO". Physical NIC vusb0 is up
Any idea welcome
Thank you so much for your USB drivers.
I'm testing it with a "ugreen USB-Network adapter" and it gives me a good feeling using the "esxcli network nic list":
[root@localhost:~] esxcli network nic list
Name PCI Device Driver Admin Status Link Status Speed Duplex MAC Address MTU Description
------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ----------- ----- ------ ----------------- ---- --------------------------------------------
vmnic0 0000:00:1f.6 ne1000 Up Up 1000 Full f4:4d:30:66:88:a8 1500 Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection I219-V
vusb0 Pseudo ax88179_178a Up Down 0 Half 00:0e:c6:cb:8c:2e 1500 Unknown Unknown
The only suggestion i had is that when you explain the installation, you could explain also that if someone has problems to install the drivers directly from the storage units, there is another option to install it, using the URL to the file:
esxcli software vib install -v https://s3.amazonaws.com/virtuallyghetto-download/vghetto-ax88179-esxi65.vib -f
This works great for me, because i'm a newbie and the esxi give me always the file not found message when try to use the storage path.
Ugreen adapter:
https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B00MYTSN7W/ref=ask_ql_qh_dp_hza
Thank you so much again.
Luis.
THANK YOU!!! This was driving me nuts! This worked like a charm.
You're welcome... :o)
Great job William! It works on my Startech Dual Adapter in my 4th Gen NUC i5 D54250WYKH. Thanks for everything.
Same issue as noted above, running on skull canyon with 6.5, adapter works fine for a short period before all traffic stops on that interface.
This is Great! Everything you have said has worked for me. I'm about to Test the j5 adapter and see if it runs for more than a few minutes. I already have it installed (j5 JU130).
howdy,
can you make vsphere driver vib for new realtek & gigabit killer LAN to?
hello all.
step 2 clear
this error?
esxcli software vib install -v /vghetto-ax88179-esxi65.vib -f
[VibDownloadError]
('/vghetto-ax88179-esxi65.vib', '/tmp/vibtransaction/tmp.vib', '[Errno 2] Local file does not exist: /vghetto-ax88179-esxi65.vib')
url = /vghetto-ax88179-esxi65.vib
Hi Antonio, read my comment two or three post upper... I had the same issue.
perfect Luis your note is correct.
Hi, the link for download: https://s3.amazonaws.com/virtuallyghetto-download/vghetto-ax88179-esxi65.vib
not works! 🙁
Amazon s3 is having issues right now (https://status.aws.amazon.com/) 2-28-17
"Increased Error Rates
Update at 11:35 AM PST: We have now repaired the ability to update the service health dashboard. The service updates are below. We continue to experience high error rates with S3 in US-EAST-1, which is impacting various AWS services. We are working hard at repairing S3, believe we understand root cause, and are working on implementing what we believe will remediate the issue."
Thank you for publishing this driver for ESXi6.5, it helps us a lot in our testing
Hi,
I'm using other stuff on my esxi (like zWave USB stick etc...) does the esxcli system module set -m=vmkusb -e=FALSE will break the ability to use them ?
Many thanks for the job by the way !
thank you for your effort but i always get that error:
esxcli software vib install -v vghetto-ax88179-esxi65.vib
[VibDownloadError]
('vghetto-ax88179-esxi65.vib', '/tmp/vibtransaction/tmp.vib', '[Errno 2] Local file does not exist: /var/log/vmware/vghetto-ax88179-esxi65.vib')
url = vghetto-ax88179-esxi65.vib
Please refer to the log file for more details.
with or without -f option
6.0 U2 worked like a charm
Solved: need to provide the full path to the lib file 🙁
hi all
i have a problem with usb network
at reboot of esxi the network nic will be removed from vswitch standard and i must add manually
anyone have the same problem?
thank you
hi
Yes. I have the same problem. Version 6.5 and 6.7
Does it support Jumbo Frames for VSAN through it? I get an error when trying to change the MTU to 9000
Only the Realtek adapters support frames at 9k. The ASIX jumbo frame implementation only supports frames up to 4k.
Hi again,
Thanki you soy much for the 6.5 driver.
I was having the following issue:
With the 6.0 driver on a 6.5 esxi, when i tryed to copy large amount of files from a fisical machine to a virtual machine the driver hang or something happend with the "vswitch0 (2 nics: fisical and usb)" that stops the copy and every vm running alert that the internet communication was broken.
To install the new driver i had to make the following, because i was unable to install it, the esxi alway skipped the file:
-Remove the old driver.
-Stop all the running machines.
-Delete de usbnic from the vswitch0(i had a bond, the vswitch0 with two nics).
-Reboot the esxi.
-Check if the usbnic still appear at the exci console. OK not appeared.
-Install the new driver.
-Refresh the esxi console, the usbnic appeared again. Link it to the vswitch again.
-Reboot the esxi. Not neccesary.
-Try again to copy large amount of data(more than 4Gb).¡¡¡¡OK its works!!!!!!
Good morning,
I experimented a issue with my home lab. With the last update of VMware 6.5 (ESXi650-201701001) in a machine (Intel NUC) crash with the Realtek driver. The usb card is TP-LINK UE300.
Thanks!
William doesn't support the Realtek driver. I might be able to help; ping me on gomesjj at devtty.co.uk
Same problem on vSwitch:
I'm using 2 usb nic (Startech) added to a virtual switch (for vMotion and iSCSI on esxi 6.5) at reboot the vSwitch have NONE active uplink, if I edit the vSwitch I see the two nic cards as uplink and the vSwitch come alive; seems the usb driver was loaded after the networks drivers, there some trick to solve this issue?
ok, "solved" with a workaround, added these two lines
esxcli network vswitch standard uplink add -u vusb0 -v vSwitch1
esxcli network vswitch standard uplink add -u vusb1 -v vSwitch1
on /etc/rc.local.d/local.sh
(vSwitch1 is the name of MY virtual switch...)
Thank you twuhabro I will try this option too.
Luis
Putting said commands into local.sh should work, but in my case doing so doesn't cause the uplinks to return. If I manually run the commands from the CLI the uplinks do come back.
Hi,
At the end the USB nics stop working, neither of them works fine.
I think that I waste my money.
esxi can detect the usb ethernet just fine. so i set it as management network. after esxi restart, the usb ethernet has been un-selected, and i have no management network.
I'm hitting this issue as well what version of ESX are you seeing it on?
hi all,
followed the procedure above on my nuc skull canyon, current bios, esxi 6.5
i've attached 1x single port Startech and 1x dual port Startech adapter via USB.
with lsusb is see the devices, but i dont see them in the vsphere host client nic management page
Bus 001 Device 009: ID 0b95:1790 ASIX Electronics Corp. AX88179 Gigabit Ethernet
Bus 001 Device 008: ID 0b95:1790 ASIX Electronics Corp. AX88179 Gigabit Ethernet
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 2109:8110
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0b95:1790 ASIX Electronics Corp. AX88179 Gigabit Ethernet
anybody any ideas on that?
I'm having the same problem... did you get past this?
I was able to injest the vib, and put the rule in as stated. I rebooted the esxi box, and now i have a greyed out network adapters and VLAN.
I enabled the esxi shell , but still no access. I have a feeling all network adapters have been disabled somehow. I might have to revert to reset the system configuration.
Interesting enough, I went to network restore options on the DCUI, hit restore network settings, and now all my network adapters are available and are not greyed out anymore.
Hi,
tx for all your investigative engineering work! IOU
I have now on my home lab an intel NUC7i5bnh working with a manhattan RJ45-2-USB3 adapter and booting from USB 3 stick.
With less power consumption than my second hand HP DL380G6.
I see the network device in my list and now I gonna try to set sophos home UTM as gateway to scan all webbrowsing and mail communication.
http://www.manhattan-products.com/usb-30-to-gigabit-network-adapter
Mario
Reboot of ESXi host causes NIC to be removed from vswitch. Anybody experience this? Thanks.
I'm seeing the same behavior what version of ESX?
6.5.0a
I've installed ESXi 6.5 Update 1 (build 5969303) and the same thing is happening after a reboot. Every time I reboot, I have to run the following two commands to re-attach the usb uplink to the vswitch and to set the usb uplink to "unused" in the port group policy for the corresponding port group. This makes using the dual NIC setup pretty painful. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
esxcli network vswitch standard uplink add -u vusb0 -v vSwitch0
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup policy failover set -p iSCSI-2 -a vusb0
The driver and installation instructions worked exactly as described - first try. As usual.
William, your blog has saved me hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars over past few years - just taking a moment to give the kudos. This driver is awesome. This is blog is awesome. Stuff like this makes the Internet is awesome!
Very excited at having a second NIC on my NUC6 (Skull Canyon).
Really appreciate you taking the time and leaving a comment to just say thanks!
There is such a mixed bag of experiences here. I wish I could say I’m one of the success stories like HapiRat and his NUC6, but I have had nothing but problems getting this to work reliably with an NUC6i7KYK and clean installs of ESXi 6.5.
I started working with this setup early this year, with an earlier build of ESXi 6.5. The first signs of trouble came when I found that the port groups would sometimes swap their assigned vSwitches with each other upon host reboot. This only happened with the vSwicthes uplinked to the vusb adapters, not the onboard Intel adapter and the management network (thankfully). When this happened I could not remedy it via the web GUI as I got all sorts of errors. I could only fix it from the CLI, which entailed deleting and recreating port groups in order to get things right. But of course a reboot of the host might mess it all up again. Other times the vSwicthes would just lose the vusb uplinks altogether on host reboot, as others have reported here. Again I could not remedy this with the web GUI and would have to use the CLI to re-add the uplinks. For whatever reason the ESXi web GUI just isn’t the same as performing the same commands from the CLI, which further adds to the frustration.
More recently I rebuilt everything with a clean install of ESXi and the latest 6.5 Update 1 in hopes things might be smoother. So far I haven’t seen any strangeness with port groups moving about, but I now consistently lose the vusb uplinks on host reboot and can only successfully add them back via the CLI. Again, the web GUI is worthless! Worse, sometimes re-adding the uplinks doesn’t allow traffic to pass and the vusb adapters become useless. Right now the system is in a state where I can’t get it to pass any traffic over the vusb adapters even though all configurations look right. A few reboots and nothing has changed. I truly regret having spent so much time with this ridiculous USB adapter on ESXi.
By the way, I have had absolutely no issues with Hyper-V and this USB adapter on the same NUC6 hardware. Plug-and-play. Insert and done. I really wish ESXi would play as nicely.
I tried to add the driver bundle to an image to build an customized iso with powercli but it fails. It gives an error message:
Export-ESXImageProfile : The VIB virtuallyGhetto_bootbank_vghetto-ax88179-esxi65_6.0.0-1.0.0 does not contain a signatu
re.
How do i fix this? The ESXi install doesn't want to load because my onboard Realtek NIC and my attached USB NIC is not recognized.
you forgot the -f switch
Hi William, Thanks for your work with these drivers. It's much appreciated. They seem to work very well. I'm wondering if you can comment on one particular issue I'm having with the usb nic after reboots.
I’ve installed ESXi 6.5 Update 1 (build 5969303). Every time I reboot, the usb uplink becomes disassociated with the vswitch and I have to run the following two commands to re-attach the usb uplink to the vswitch and to set the usb uplink to “unused” in the port group policy for the corresponding port group.
esxcli network vswitch standard uplink add -u vusb0 -v vSwitch0
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup policy failover set -p iSCSI-2 -a vusb0
I got my hands on a realtek based adapter, and that seems to not disconnect on reboot with Jose's realtek driver. Right now my iperf results are pretty low (~300 Mbps).
I was having the same issue. I set the adapter to 1000/full instead of auto-neg and it seems to have fixed my issue. Haven't been able to fully test it yet though.
Which issue did that resolve for you... The low bandwidth results or the disappearing uplink upon reboot?
Sorry, should have specified... seems to have resolved the uplink being disconnected on reboot.
Thanks for the suggestion, but doesn't seem to do the trick for me.
Looks like I had a bad adapter. I bought two Rankie adapters (https://www.amazon.com/Network-Adapter-Rankie-SuperSpeed-Ethernet/dp/B010SEARPU) and am using Jose's realtek driver and having no issues. Hope this helps you guys out.
Are you running 6.5U1? Do you have any issues with the NICs being disconnected when you reboot or is it just the ax88179 driver that we're seeing that issue?
Yes, am having no issue.
[root@esx1:~] vmware -vl
VMware ESXi 6.5.0 build-5969303
VMware ESXi 6.5.0 Update 1
[root@esx1:~] esxcli network nic get -n vmnic32
Advertised Auto Negotiation: true
Advertised Link Modes: 10BaseT/Half, 10BaseT/Full, 100BaseT/Half, 100BaseT/Full, 1000BaseT/Full
Auto Negotiation: true
Cable Type: MII
Current Message Level: 32767
Driver Info:
Bus Info: usb-0000:00:14.0-3
Driver: r8152
Firmware Version:
Version: v2.05.0 (2015/06/09)
Link Detected: true
Link Status: Up
Name: vmnic32
PHYAddress: 32
Pause Autonegotiate: false
Pause RX: false
Pause TX: false
Supported Ports: MII
Supports Auto Negotiation: true
Supports Pause: false
Supports Wakeon: true
Transceiver: internal
Virtual Address: 00:50:56:56:1b:2b
Wakeon: MagicPacket(tm)
You're right, that wasn't a 100% fix. Really hoping someone can figure this out!
I want to try this on my ESXi 6.5 system, but I am booting my ESXi from USB. By disabling the native USB driver, will this cause boot problem?
Thanks William, excellent article 🙂 .
Is there any implications to running more than one USB NIC. Say if I have NIC's connected to different vswitches and reboot the host will they stay with associated vSwitches?
Hello vG,
I'm struggling with the installation of USB network driver on my NUC. I did the steps as above. I can see the USB dives > lsusb command. So that's good. Installed the driver > Installation Result
Message: Operation finished succesfully.
VIBs Installed: virtualGhetto_bootbank_vghetto-ax88179-esxi65_0.0-1.0.0
So that's also good. Did the check command esxcli network nic list.
There is other nic installed than it was.
What did i do wrong.
PS > bought this USB network card >StarTech USB 3.0 to Dual Port Gigabit Ethernet Adapter NIC with USB Port
Best regards,
Maurice
Everything worked as in the procedure (NUC6i5 with StarTech USB 3.0) "driver installed succesfully" etc. etc.....but after reboot everything is gone? Is the Esxi filesystem RO? When i mkdir a folder for example that is also gone after a reboot so...........
Ahum :
https://www.williamlam.com/2011/08/how-to-persist-configuration-changes-in.html
For folks who mentioned they've had issues where the USB NIC's configuration and association to vSwitch is not persisting, could you give a bit more background on the version of ESXi, the installation type (on disk or USB)?
I personally don't make use of the USB NIC that frequently, but I had recently re-built my 6.5u1 system a few days ago and installed the USB NIC driver and added it as an "Active" uplink and have been able to reboot several times without any issues. In fact, I've even completely removed the pNIC from vSwitch0 all together and as you can see from the output below, only the USB NIC is attached and reboots have been fine.
[root@nuc:~] esxcfg-vswitch -l
Switch Name Num Ports Used Ports Configured Ports MTU Uplinks
vSwitch0 1536 5 128 1500 vusb0
PortGroup Name VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks
VM Network 0 1 vusb0
Management Network 0 1 vusb0
I'm just wondering if there's something else going on thats causing the issues?
William,
I'm running ESXi 6.5.0 build 5969303 off of a USB flash drive on an Intel NUC. The intent was to use dual NICs to maximize the bandwidth/performance to the iSCSI storage on my Synology NAS using iSCSI multipathing on the ESXi side and link aggregation on the NAS side.
Hello William
Mine is: (Updated) ESXi-6.5.0-4564106-standard (VMware, Inc.)
[root@localhost:~] esxcfg-vswitch -l
Switch Name Num Ports Used Ports Configured Ports MTU Uplinks
PortGroup: NIC vusb0 does not exist
PortGroup: NIC vusb0 does not exist
vSwitch0 1536 5 128 1500 vmnic0,vusb0,vusb0
PortGroup Name VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks
VM Network 0 1 vmnic0
Management Network 0 1 vmnic0
Switch Name Num Ports Used Ports Configured Ports MTU Uplinks
vSwitch-Internal 1536 5 1024 1500
PortGroup Name VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks
VMNetwork-Internal 0 4
I had unplug all the usb nics, due to the problems with the hangings.
Luis.
Anyone found a solution to this? I tried Hiren's solution below, which doesn't make sense to me that the storage controller driver makes the network adapters stop passing traffic. I've read a lot about the vmwahci driver problems and I've seen where folks say 6.5u1 fixes this issue. I've reinstalled from scratch with 6.5u1 and I've run into this issue again where the usb adapters stop passing traffic.
for me it doesn't work with the TP-link ue-300.. I installed all possible drivers..
Hi,
is there a way to DONT disable the USB driver? I need it for a USB HDD that is attched to the ESXI Server as DataStore
Worked perfectly for me, was even able to use them for vsan all flash (but will stay on board NIC due to latency).
No problem for me with StarTech ones.
Hi Jihemme. I have the StarTech USB3.0 dual gigabit NIC adapters and I'm still having the network dropped traffic/connectivity issue when attempting large file transfers. Have you done anything special to achieve the success you're seeing? Thanks for your reply in advance.
Hi, William! After doing some research, I was wondering if the ASIX drivers were compiled with the latest version of the drivers from ASIX found here: http://www.asix.com.tw/download.php?sub=driverdetail&PItemID=131
If not, maybe that will solve the issues that we're seeing with dropped connectivity from the ASIX-based USB3.0 chipset? Please advise and thank you for your contributions and insight on this blog. It's a valuable resource for a lot of us techies.
Hey,
Thanks for this very informative article.
I just needed a small clarification. I have my ESXi 6.5 host residing in HPE Blade 460c Gen9 server and I purchased the TP-Link UE300. Will this vib driver work for the same?
Also, I have tried few othet drivers and the usb wasn't show in the nic list.
Please let me know if this solution is suitable for my requirement.
Regards,
Jayashree.
Hi William
I'am college student, and I am trying to fresh-install ESXi 6.5 on an samsung np530u4b. The only network adapter is an ASIX ax88179 ( TRENDNET: https://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Ethernet-Chromebook-Specific-TU3-ETG/dp/B00FFJ0RKE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1518122062&sr=8-1&keywords=tu3-etg )
I used the vghetto-ax88179-esxi65.vib and ESXi-Customizer-v2.7.2.exe to generate a new image custom esxi from a imagen: VMware-VMvisor-Installer-201701.x86_64.iso
During the pre-boot , I ran the following command: jumpstart.disable=vmkusb to disable the vmkusb driver. However, later I get the following message:
- No compatible network adapter found. Please consult the product's Hardware Compatibility Guide (HCG) for list of supported adapters.
Can you help me?
I am having problems using the StarTech USB 3.0 Single Port NIC together with an onBoard Device an LACP on a vDS 6.5.
The GUI looks fine, but the command: "esxcli network vswitch dvs vmware lacp stats get" shows only the the onBoard NIC.
Does anyone else have this issue?
I am also having similar problem, USB nic does not work with LACP for some reason.
Thanks a lot Wiliam. Great work!
I could solve the "does not contain a signature" error by disabling secure-boot in BIOS.
I had to enable it during installation of ESXi.
After the installation according to the instructions, it works well. After some time comes on the VM the message "No Internet connection". Only after the deinstallation and new installation of the VIB it works again for a short time. Can you please help me?
Version: 6.5.0 Update 1 (Build 6765664)
Adapter: StarTech.com USB 3.0 Gigabit Ethernet Lan
Host: Intel NUC
Hi, I experience the same íssue as above. any solutionts to this? The USB NIC stops working after some time.
Rebooting the ESXi sometime helps.
Thank you, worked like a charm.
I appreciate the time and effort it took to research and build the driver, and how much pain you saved me!
I have a StarTech USB 3.0 single port gigabit ethernet lan as well as a USB-C dual port startech hooked up to my skull canyon nuc. The reason for this is that I wanted the dual port to be for lan and wan for pfsense and the single port to be for my tap port. It all install easily and seemed to be working find. However, I'm not sure why. One of the ports on the dual port USB-C seems to just drop traffic intermittently. Instead of using both ports, I'm just using one now, but it still happens. It is, however, much less frequent. No idea at the moment why.
Also, just unplugging the cable and plugging it back in will bring everything back up immediately.
I'm running 3 Intel Skull Canyon NUCs with a J5 Create USB NIC in each (giving me 2 NICs per host). Everything is running fine. However, the other day I picked up a few StarTec Dual Port USB NICs (also in the list above) and plugged them in. Rebooted the ESXi hosts and they're not being recognized. Only seeing the built in and the original J5 Create. Do I need to "reload" the hosts to recognize the new NICs? Nothing seems to be picking them up...
I was running into the same problem with my NUC7i7 turns out I didn't have Thunderbolt enable on Boot, so you have to enable to bios to start the Thunderbolt before getting into the OS otherwise it won't detect.
However I am running into the same problem as @Scot with ESXi 6.7
Be careful, sadly this driver is not as stable on 6.7, I have two Skull Canyon, ever since the update both adapter stop moving packets at random intervals (usually a few hours) - only certain fix is a full reboot.
@Scot
i can confirm
having the same behaviour, 2 x MSI Cubi (2x USB Ethernet each) on 6.7
"Metoo" ???? I use the Startech dual-port Gigabit adapters.
As Clement suggested above, unplugging the network cables, waiting a few seconds, then plugging them back in, does appear to kick it into life again.
The next time it happens, I'll work out which switch ports they're plugged into and bounce the switch ports instead. That saves me running up and down stairs!
does disabling the USB drive stop the USB flash drive from working? asking b/c that's what i boot into and ESXI is running off of it during boot.
Intel® NUC Kit NUC6i7KYK (Skull Canyon) with StarTech USB 3 Gigabit Adapters - same problem as @Scot in that the adapter just randomly stops working, within a day.
Forgot to mention - running 6.7 on the NUC with 32GB memory
I have the same issue, the driver of dual StarTech USB 3 is stopping, i have the two nuc in esxi 6.7(Baby Canyon), any solution?
On 6.7 I am starting to see that the USB adapters (Startech twin gigabit) are more likely to fail when used for VM traffic. The ones I have dedicated to doing iSCSI or vMotion keep working.
So maybe it is related to ever-changing MAC addresses on packets being sent/received?
Has anyone else seen signs like this? It might help in debugging the driver...
hello
you could fix it. I'm with 6.7 and it's eventually in hours when I lose connectivity
thanks!
I’m trying to load the vghetto-ax88179-esxi65.vib on esxi6.7 and I’m getting the below error when executing this command ‘esxcli software vib install -v /vghetto-ax88179-esxi65.vib -f’
[InstallationError]
(‘virtuallyGhetto_bootbank_vghetto-ax88179-esxi65_6.0.0-1.0.0’, ‘The VIB virtuallyGhetto_bootbank_vghetto-ax88179-esxi65_6.0.0-1.0.0 does not contain a signature.’)
vibs = virtuallyGhetto_bootbank_vghetto-ax88179-esxi65_6.0.0-1.0.0
Please refer to the log file for more details.
Can you help me please as I’m pulling my hair out
Just to share my experience with the AX-88179 on ESXi 6.7. Not too difficult, but can't say it's simple.
Running a dual USB-A StatTech.com adapter on a NUC7i7DNHE (Quad i7 Kaby Lake).
So far I've learned:
- If booting UEFI, disable "Secure Boot". Or the driver will not install (complain about the signature). I have not tried lowering the acceptance level to "Community". My guess it may work.
- Disabling the "Native USB Drivers" mean that the *NEW* drivers, that are incompatible with the ones required by the AX-88179 (and also for Jose's Realtek variant). But the *old* style USB drivers *will get loaded* (not sure if they are in the ESXi image or in the ethernet drivers). So if you use any USB device as I do, they *will* work fine.
- These drivers are either slow to initialize or VMWare did not considered USB based network adapters in the boot logic. Therefore when the network is configured, there is a great chance that the devices are not yet available. The result: they are not connected to the virtual switches.
To make it even hard, sometimes they are not ready when /etc/rc.local.d/local.sh runs. So attaching and enabling the interfaces on the shell needs so extra work. This is what I've been using in local.sh (change to match your network):
--- start ----
# Wait for the interfaces to come up
status=`esxcli network nic get -n vusb0 | grep Link\ Status | awk '{print $NF}'`
cnt=0;
while [ "$status" != "Up" ]; do
cnt=$((cnt+1))
if [ "$cnt" -eq 20 ]; then
break
fi
sleep 10
done
# If interface is up, use USB interfaces
if [ "$status" = "Up" ]; then
# Add uplinks to vswitches
esxcli network vswitch standard uplink add -u vusb0 -v vSwitch0
esxcli network vswitch standard uplink add -u vusb1 -v vSwitch2
# Activate uplinks in portgroups (from unused to active)
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup policy failover set -p 'Management Network' -a vusb0
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup policy failover set -p 'VM Network' -a vusb0
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup policy failover set -p "VM Private' -a vusb1
fi
--- end ---
The wait time can be adjusted (sleep) and the max iterations of the loop. With 20 iterations and a 10 sec wait I can always get it to connected. Do not ask me why it takes too long to initialize.
The bad side is that it voids any network changed done at the EHC or vCenter level. The commands here must match your network configuration. If only there was a simpler way to reset the network to the *saved" configuration....
So far I've been using the adapter without any major problem. I will be collecting performance data.
I see only one problem with this adapter (aside from any performance limitation): Jumbo Frames are limited to 4K bytes.
I run a dedicated iSCSI network with jumbo frames @9000. So I had move the iSCSI network to vmnic0 (built in ethernet).
Next I'm trying to setup ESXi on a Gen8 NUC (NUC8i7HNK) that will use the USB-C version of the SartTech.com adapters. But no luck to get this one to boot ESXi.... yet.
Arnold — I've found the delay (and hence the loop needed in local.sh) is needed to wait for the "esxcli" command to work at all. The process it talks to (hostd??) takes quite a while to get going. You can sit and wait until just about any valid esxcli command returns 0, there's no need to do any more than that.
And yes, the vswitch memberships and uplinks failover policies all get lost over a reboot.
So everything *appears* to work just fine.
The problem the rest of us have been seeing is that, after some random length of time (it can be days or weeks!) the USB NIC will just stop sending or receiving packets. Take the switch ports down (or unplug the network cables), wait a few seconds, then bring them back up again (or plug them in again), and it starts to work again. Most of the time that fix works.
But the complete loss of things like iSCSI in the time between when it stopped and when you noticed, can make ESXi very upset to a point it isn't prepared to recover on its own. At which point you need to power-cycle the host, as it may even refuse to "reboot -f".
Incidentally, I have found the exact same behaviour using either the vGhetto AX88179 driver or the devtty.uk AX88179 driver. They both just stop after a while, same symptoms, same fix/workaround.
Jules.
Interesting point about the iSCSI vulnerability to these disconnects. With that in mind. running iSCSI (or any other protocol for VM storage) over the USB based Ethernet nics is at best, risky. I will see if and when I get a disconnect.
But, as use jumbo frames @9000 and the AX88179 limits the MTU to 4K, I'm keeping the onboard nic exclusive for vPro (can't change it) and iSCSI. Management and VMs are using the USB based Ethernet ports. If I get a disconnect, I can attempt to recover using the vPro based KVM to the DCUI (recover connectivity or perform a clean shutdown).
arnaldo - Thank you very much for sharing your experiences along with some useful tips that can benefit others.
Re: Secure Boot - It won't work, because Secure Boot expects properly signed VIBs and will not boot the host. Lowering the acceptance level won't change anything
Re: USB-C, take a look at https://www.williamlam.com/2017/01/functional-usb-c-thunderbolt-3-ethernet-adapter-for-esxi-5-5-6-0-6-5.html if you've not already. I vaguely recall some other folks have tried on the latest Gen8 NUC w/o issues
I understand that folks are frustrated with the random disconnect of network connectivity which hasn't been consistent for anyone, as user "Jules Field" points out, this can be days or weeks. Since this is not something thats officially supported and was put together as a side project, YMMV. The only thing I can potentially offer up is if folks are running into the disconnect, if they can produce a vm-support bundle prior to rebooting, perhaps there's something in the logs that could indicate where the issue is. It feels like something is "filling up" since its duration-based and for me, it actually only happened once which took almost 1.5months and I've not been able to constantly reproduce it.
Hi William,
I am using the dual eth USB startech and having same issue.
When rebooting the esxi now in 6.5 ( but prior in 6.0 happened the same) one of the vusb does not reconnect to the vswitch.
It always is the same vusb1. I can do as many tests you want 🙂
how can I create the vm-support?
Thanks
I think you might onto something with "something filling up". I was intermittently (yet pretty consistently) having this issue when I was using the USB-C startech dual port as part of a pfsense firewall setup. As my entire home network's traffic goes through it, that might be the reason that it's was pretty frequent (anywhere between < 30 min - 12hrs). When I first set this up, it was over the weekend and disconnects were 1-3 hrs, then on weekdays, it may not disconnect at all while I was at work, but disconnect sometime after I came home or overnight. I also have another usb starech single port, which I use to collect traffic from a TAP port, but doesn't seem to have ever gone down.
I've since gone away from using the usb dual port nic for pfsense cause of the intermittent disconnects. However, when I get a chance, I can set it up again and see if I can generate some useful logs for you.
I also get the same feeling: it's like something "filling up". The disconnects I got were under high usage. And only on the port that had such use. Looks either at memory contention or a leak. On the past week I could not generate an intense traffic.
Interesting observations. If anyone can generate a standard ESXi support bundle when they experience this disconnect, I can try to provide this to Engr to see if they notice anything specific. Its been a difficult thing to narrow down and even with the support bundle, there's no guarantees that it'll capture what's needed to potentially fix it (assuming its fixable).
William - one of my NUC5 boxes is in the "broken" state right now. But it looks like it's taken out at least its iSCSI connection. So when I ssh into it and run "vm-support" it hangs and doesn't respond to Ctrl-C at all. Can I get together the necessary logs and so on without it trying to gather info about the iSCSI filesystems?
Would the support bundle still be useful if I try to get all the ports working again by temporarily unplugging and replugging their network cables first, *then* run the "vm-support" command?
I don't recall if simply unplugging/re-plugging the cable would restore the connection, if you can, it won't impact the logs collection. You can also exclude specific manifests from collection, use vm-support -G to list the options and then -e and the list such as Storage and see if that helps as well
William — I have just sent you the support bundle, via your About page. The link should take you to our Dropoff service (which is a software project of mine 🙂
Thanks julesfuk!
Hi, I've found a workaround which works in my specific case for the runtime disconnects (although not for the reboot vswitch deassociation).
I'm using the startech adapter with your 6.5 driver on a gen6 skull canyon, running esxi 6.5 u1. I have a sophos xg appliance using the USB adapter for its WAN interface, routed through to a netcomm n4fv modem/router - so basically the XG has an untagged port group on the usb's vswitch with an IP address of 192.168.20.101 and the gateway configured as the router's IP, 192.168.20.1, and the XG's IP is configured as the DMZ host.
Configuring the netcomm to manually map the XG's MAC address to 192.168.20.101 - such that the arp result flag is 0x6 - prevents loss of connectivity during runtime and under load. I'd noticed that whenever the interface went down the netcomm was saying the result flag was 'incomplete' / 0x0 and the mac address was undefined (all zeros).
Hope this helps.
I will keep this running and see if I get a disconnect. A few days and nothing so far.
As for the Gen8 NUC, yes, there are a few success stories, but for me, and several others, it still hangs badly during install. And I've tried a lot of variations (boot parameters, bios settings, memory, etc).
Arnaldo - I just noticed your comments via email notification, looks like I had some issues with my blog yesterday and lost a few comments. To answer your vm-support question, yes a basic one w/o any params will be sufficient. Feel free to drop me an email (see About) with link to support bundle when you have a chance
It's been a week and it's running solid. No disconnect. Before I got 2 withing hours of power on. Now... go figure.
Unfortunately I will have to use the NUC for another project, so I will not be able to wait any longer.
However, I will give it a try when (and if) I can get the NUC8i7HNK to boot ESXi. I have a USB-C dual for that NUC too, but first I need to get it to boot ESXi. Some report success, but for others it will not boot.
I installed it on ESXi 6.7.0 and it works out the box. Thank you!
Any updates on the NIC disconnects? I get them constantly. I recently upgraded to 6.7 and that made no difference.
I have the same problem. I haveDual StarTech USB and the two nuc in esxi 6.7(Baby Canyon)
I try everything, fresh esxi install, uninstall and repeat the instalation of the drivers. But the problem persist.
All of he nic vmnic0,vusb0 and vusb1 and in the VDS, MTU 1600.
*Here an example of error, suddenly the vusb1 stop sending/reciving traffic.
2018-07-29T12:03:48.447Z cpu3:2097552)WARNING: LinNet: netdev_watchdog:3688: NETDEV WATCHDOG: vusb1: transmit timed out
2018-07-29T12:03:48.447Z cpu3:2097552)xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: Stopped on Transfer TRB
* Other problem is that both vmnic(vusb0/vusb1) stop sending/reciving traffic and nothing appear in the logs, i have to restart the vmnic.
William if you want, i can gather a support log and upload to you for analyze.
Thank you.
I have the same problems. I am using a Dell laptop connected via a single StarTech usb nic.
It strikes me that the connection only causes problems when lots of data has passed over it. For this reason I have created a script that switches the network card off and on again twice a day, so that my connection can at least be restored.
Hi, could you please share the script? Thanks!
I have modified the script. I use my vusb0 adaptor to connect to the internet. the script checks if there is an internet connection, otherwise the network adapter will be reset.
#!/bin/sh
# Script to monitor and restart networkadaptor when needed
destination=1.1.1.1
networkadaptor=vusb0
maxPloss=10 #Maximum percent packet loss before a restart
restart_networking() {
# Add any commands need to get network back up and running
esxcli network nic down -n $networkadaptor
esxcli network nic up -n $networkadaptor
sleep 10
}
while true; do
# Initialize to a value that would force a restart
if [[ "$(ping $destination | grep '100% packet loss' )" != "" ]];
then restart_networking
fi
done
How can I configure the script to run and "persist" in my esxi?
thanks!!
I placed the script on a persisted storage and edited the /etc/rc.local.d/local.sh.
First I copy the file to the local drive and then start it.
cp /vmfs/volumes///ConnectionMonitor.sh /usr/sbin/
/usr/sbin/ConnectionMonitor.sh &
hello
I'm with 6.7 and it's eventually in hours when I lose connectivity. on the logs
link vusb0 recovered from a transient error due to the Watchdog timeout.
thanks
yes, I have a nuc skull and it has the same issue, the USB 3.0 startech Nic fails when browsing web, after a few minutes. restarting the Nic on esx host, seems to fix issue temporarily.
hello everybody
I got the good idea to buy the USB 3.0 gigabit Ethernet Adapter from microsoft (for microsoft surface) thinking it was good...... and i am wrong.... Must i carry on to looking for a solution or definitly put in to the trash ? Thx for your help very good job here.
I get "unknown url type" whenever I run the command in step 2. I've tried the vib and the offline bundle.
All,
I am not using this configuration, but I'd like to be able to use it in the future. One idea that might be causing USB NICs to freeze; perhaps the power saving configuration in the BIOS is causing the motherboard to power off the USB port when traffic over the USB NIC has stopped for longer than some defined time. So you might try changing any BIOS setting(s) related to power saving to whatever value will keep USB ports always powered or increase the time to wait before powering down. Just an idea, that I hadn't seen discussed in this thread. Hopefully, some one with the hardware and experiencing the problem can test this idea.
HTH,
PDAlbert
I installed ESXi 6.7 U1 from scratch on a NUC7i7BNH. Changed ESXi acceptance level to community. Tried to install this VIB via GUI and CLI.
[root@localhost:~] esxcli software vib install -v /vmfs/volumes/2TB/vghetto-ax88179-esxi65.vib -f
Installation Result
Message: Host is not changed.
Reboot Required: false
VIBs Installed:
VIBs Removed:
VIBs Skipped: virtuallyGhetto_bootbank_vghetto-ax88179-esxi65_6.0.0-1.0.0
Do I need to install 6.5 first and the upgrade to 6.7U1? Not sure where to go from here. Thanks in advance!
Update.... even though the result says, "host is not changed," if I do a "esxcli software vib list," I see that it's actually there. Ugh! After disabling the native USB driver (per instructions above) and rebooting, I see the hardware. There's a couple of hours I'll never get back. Hope this helps someone else!
I can verify that this solution works with ESXi-6.7.0-20180704001-standard (Build 9214924) running on an Intel NUC8i7HNK (Hades Canyon).
Hello,
After several days I tried to configure my network to support vSAN (6.5 vCenter) with StarTech usb nic and dvswitch, the configuration is okay but sometimes I have a lost of vmk vSAN and when I try to see neighbor with the command line : esxcli network ip neighbor list I have this result :
Neighbor Mac Address Vmknic Expiry State Type
------------- ----------------- ------ -------- ----- -------
10.1.2.224 (incomplete) vmk2 -1 sec Unknown
10.1.2.223 (incomplete) vmk2 -1 sec Unknown
10.1.2.222 (incomplete) vmk2 -1 sec Unknown
But the status of my nic are up:
Name PCI Device Driver Admin Status Link Status Speed Duplex MAC Address MTU Description
------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ----------- ----- ------ ----------------- ---- ------------------------------------------------
vmnic0 0000:00:1f.6 ne1000 Up Up 1000 Full 94:c6:91:a0:71:dc 1500 Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection (4) I219-V
vusb0 Pseudo ax88179_178a Up Up 1000 Full 00:0a:cd:33:8b:b0 4000 Unknown Unknown
vusb1 Pseudo ax88179_178a Up Up 1000 Full 00:0a:cd:33:8b:b1 4000 Unknown Unknown
Any Idea ? Thank you in advance for your help 🙂
Hello,
I've tried just about everything I could find on here and I can't get this to work. I upgraded from 6.0u3 to 6.5u2. Nothing. I've tried both drivers for the AX88179 on the Startech adapters. I've rebooted multiple times. The vib successfully installs. I disable vmkusb successfully. Nothing works.
This is what I see when I do an esxcli network nic list
Name PCI Device Driver Admin Status Link Status Speed Duplex MAC Address MTU Description
------ ------------ ------ ------------ ----------- ----- ------ ----------------- ---- ------------------------------------------------
vmnic0 0000:00:1f.6 ne1000 Up Up 1000 Full 94:c6:91:17:97:af 1500 Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection (4) I219-V
This is what I see when I do a esxcli software vib list
Name Version Vendor Acceptance Level Install Date
----------------------------- ----------------------------------- --------------- ---------------- ------------
vghetto-ax88179-esxi65 6.0.0-1.0.0 virtuallyGhetto VMwareCertified 2018-12-01
This is what I see when I do a esxcli system module list
Name Is Loaded Is Enabled
----------------------------- --------- ----------
vmkusb false false
usbnet true true
ax88179_178a true true
I'm at my wits end. I think that I have a small clue what the problem is, but i don't know how to solve it. The usbnetvz026.gz won't unzip or install for me. When I try to unzip it on the ESXi host, nothing happens. When I do it on another linux host I get this:
gzip: usbnetvz026.gz: invalid compressed data--format violated
I've downloaded it from multiple sources, each with the same results.
Any assistance would be appreciated.
Thanks.
NUC RouterVM with vMotion. 2nd USB NIC working fine, I love it! Thanks! Perfect home lab now
hello all
On a scenario with WAN Inet fiber 1GB, would be more advisable, having a NUC i5 to change the LAN to usb 3.0 and the wan interface with the NIC on board? Would it give more performance and reliability over the WAN? who think about changing?
I have experienced the same issue as other people on this thread for 6.7 on a NUC7i7DNHE (connection on Startech adapters drops when a lot of data is passed over them. I ran a speed test from a VM post-install and was able to reproduce the issue immediately). I decided to start from scratch and install 6.5 (update02-8294253), but I am still seeing the same issue. For those of you that have the adapters working without any problems, what version of 6.5 did you use? I am wondering if I should try 6.5.0a. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Lastly, William, if you have interest and if there is something I can provide to you to help in identifying and resolving the issue please let me know. I am happy to help.
/etc/rc.local.d/local.sh for dvswitch
I modified the script for dvswitches and added it to each of my hosts
I just had to find the uplink dvport that vusb0 was was supposed to be connected to using esxcfg-vswitch -l
# ESXI01 USB NIC Script
# Check if interface is "Up" or "Down"
vusb0_status=$(esxcli network nic get -n vusb0 | grep Link\ Status | awk '{print $NF}')
count=0
while [[ $count -lt 20 && "$vusb0_status" != "Up" ]]
do
sleep 10
count=$(( $count + 1 ))
vusb0_status=$(esxcli network nic get -n vusb0 | grep Link\ Status | awk '{print $NF}')
done
# If vusb0 is "Up", assign it to Uplink dvPort 11 of dvSwitch01.
if [ "$vusb0_status" = "Up" ]
then
esxcfg-vswitch -P vusb0 -V 11 dvSwitch01
fi
Hello everyone, and thank you William for your work on this driver.
I'm also experiencing the same network drop problem as mentioned by other people, so i'm trying to figure out what could be the cause of this.
This is my configuration:
VMware ESXi 6.7.0 build-10764712
VMware ESXi 6.7.0 Update 1
On an intel NUC8i7BEH.
I was using the usb nic as a WAN interface for a firewall (Sophos XG 17.5) and the network kept dropping randomly (except when tying a bandwidth test on the web, the connection dropped few seconds after the test). Plugging out the usb adapter and back in immediately restored connection.
So for now i have both LAN and WAN interfaces on the same built in nic, so everything at home is working fine, and i'm conducting tests on the adapter with test VMs.
For now, i haven't been able to reproduce the problem, even with iperf3 test up to 1Gbps both on udp and tcp... i will try to install a windows machine and run a web bandwidth test, will let you know if i manage to get the same problem.
I don't know if it's relevant, but someone else also mentioned a sophos XG firewall... i'm just trying to find a common factor here as this problem seems weird...
Thank you all
I was able to get the network drop behavior when testing with the windows machine and a web bandwidth test. The connection drops systematically (i tried 5 times, and lost the connection on all 5 times).
Any idea how to further investigate this?
Thank you.
Karim,
Are you using the ASIX or RealTek based NIC?
Hello John, i'm using an ASIX based NIC, the startech usb3.0 to ethernet adapter.
The Sophos has nothing to do with it, i'm getting the problem with a windows machine. I will try to mirror the port on another machine a see what happens if i get time this evening.
Hi Karim, I've done a lot of testing of the ASIX NICs over the last few weeks and have come to the conclusion that there's a fundamental flaw either in the ASIX chipset or, more likely, the ASIX driver source code that is causing the data dropout. I've given up with the ASIX and am now testing the TP-Link UE300 ReakTek based adapter and so far it's looking promising. I'll post a full write up of my findings in the next few days.
JohnS.
Hi John, thank you for the tip. I just tested the tp-link UE300 and it's working good. I also realized that i have compiled the realtek driver to the esxi image when installing it, so i don't know if it could have interfered with the asix driver in some way...
Anyways, i'll keep testing the UE300 but it's promising with the first tests.
Thank you again for the tip 🙂
Karim.
Are there any dual-port Gigabit USB NICs that use the Realtek chip?
I have a whole pile of the Startech dual-port NICs (ASIX-based) in use. Currently I have a shell script that uses 'expect' to talk to my switches and bounce the ports one at a time, every night. Most of them survive the following day, so it's more or less working as a solution.
But some NICs that didn't lock up would be much better! 🙂
Thanks,
Jules.
Folks,
Firstly I'd like to thank William, Jose, TrickStarter and everyone else who has put so much time and effort into this little project - you guys are legends!!! 🙂
I've been busy over the last few days creating an ESXi 6.0 build environment on CentOS5 and have finally managed to compile a driver for the ax88179 using the latest source code (ver. 1.19.0) and unashamedly copying Jose Gomes' source code modifications into the new code.
The driver is installed and WORKING in an ESXI 6.7 build 11675023 host and I'm currently running an iperf3 test at 940Mbps stable for nearly 2 hours. Early days, but I'll report back with the results and if everything looks good I'll make a VIB available for community test.
Cheers,
JohnS.
Hello John!
That sounds fantastic! it's very frustrated when you are in the lab doing test or uploading some files to the VMs o doing backup and suddenly the links are down :(, most of the times i have to change the uplink of the vsub0/1 by the integrated nuc.
I am expecting your vib.
Thanks for the job.
Best regards
Hi John,
Sounds like great stuff.
I haven't managed to get version 1.19.0 of the ASIX driver working; it will compile and load fine, but causes a kernel dump once the adapter is plugged in on both ESXi 6.5 and 6.7 (apparently at the rx_fixup function). This is really odd, since this function hasn't changed since version 1.14.4… I will carry on troubleshooting, as it is clear the issue lays elsewhere.
Anyway, let us know of your progress and if possible, share your work if us. I haven't seen the issues reported here with the ASIX driver 1.15.1 I compiled, but if we can get it working better with a later version I am all for it.
Thanks,
Jose
Hi all,
Very strange indeed Jose, basically I copied your additions from the Github source into the v1.19.0 source code and it compiled clean with no errors or warnings and it definitely does work on my test host running 6.7.0 Update 1 (Build 11675023). Unfortunately it has not completely cured the dropout issue but appears to have significantly improved things. I am now able to run a stable iPerf3 test in one direction at a time with total bit rate of about 900Mbps. It seems that if the TOTAL bitrate through the adapter (Tx & Rx) goes above about 1500Mbps then the dropout will occur.
I've put my VIB package on Google drive - here's the link https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ca9jjndnz2hfA6lygRiw3gusTKW6y6T2/view?usp=sharing .
You may find that the driver does not start automatically with the host, if this is the case add the following line to /etc/rc.local.d/local.sh
vmkload_mod /usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/ax88179
in addition to William's alterations above.
Please let me know how you get on.
Cheers,
JohnS.
Hi John,
Thanks for the link to the VIB — it made me realise where I was going wrong. I realised that you had used gcc version 4.4.3 whereas I was using gcc version 4.8.4; however, that wasn't the main issue: while I used the gcc compile options for the6.5/ 6.7 ODP, using the options for the 6.0 ODP (gcc 4.3.3) solved the problem. I have managed to compile the driver with gcc version 4.8.4 using the ODP 6.0 options without a problem, and the driver doesn't crash — sneaky VMware stuff…
Anyway, if you want your drive to come-up at every boot, don't use the rc file, but instead include the following jumpstart file (under usr/libexec/jumpstart/plugins/ax88179.json):
{
"operations" :
{
"start" :
[
"system module load --module ax88179"
]
}
,
"metadata" :
{
"version" : 1,
"requires" : ["vmklinux", "system configuration","vmkdevmgr", "etherswitch"],
"provides" : ["networking vmklinux drivers"]
}
}
The above will make the configuration persistent if you add the file to the VIB. Yet again, thanks to William Lam for the tip.
Finally, I haven't experienced the issues raised by you and other users when deploying the ax88179 drivers, but I must confess that I normally use the Realtek r8152 driver at my lab -- the Realtek driver and devices just seem to be better to me…
Regards,
Jose
Hi Jose and JohnS!
First, thanks both for compiling the driver for us, this weekend i will update the drivers of my NUCs with the last version and i will do some test.
I will keep you informed
Best regards
Jose, thanks for the tip about adding a ax88179.json file to the VIB - I've done this, tested it and made it available on the link above. I definitely agree with you that the RealTek r8152 is currently a much better option than the ax88179. I've been using a few of the RealTeks for some time now and haven't yet had any issues at all. I wanted to try out the most recent ax88179 driver just to give myself a degree of closure and see if it proved to be a reliable solution. Unfortunately I've come to the conclusion that currently it has problems that I won't be able to get to the bottom of. Judging by William's post above it looks like there may be something in the pipeline that will work - that will be great news indeed 🙂
Are there any dual-gigabit adapters that use the RealTek r8152?
I like using lots of NICs on each ESXi node (mostly NUC5i7 boxes borrowed from work) so I can do all the multi-NIC stuff. So I really need the dual adapters, and the only ones I have seen are AX88179-based (the Startech one).
Thanks!
Jules.
Hi Jules,
As far as I know, there's only one adapter: Vantec CB-U320GNA.
It's available on Amazon in the UK at £34.41, but I would expect to be available elsewhere else as well.
Jose
Jose,
Thanks for that, I hadn't managed to find one at all.
Google can only find them at Amazon or Ebay (Ebay is even more expensive).
If I want to do a wholesale switch to them, I am going to need 9 or 10 of them.
I'll see if the Amazon vendor is prepared to do at least a reduction in shipping price if I buy 10, or even a reduction in unit price.
Many thanks!
Jules.
Hi Jules,
I know it becomes quite expensive if you are buying adapters at that kind of numbers, so I would recommend you buy one adapter first (perhaps a single port adapter) and perform some tests before committing. My user case might be very different from yours, so I wouldn't want to see you buying multiple Realtek adapters and still not getting the expected results… Just a thought.
Regards,
Jose
Hi,
Using ESXi 6.7, after performing all the installation steps as described in the post I still can’t see the USB under esxcfg-nics -l. However, I can see the USB under lsusb command.
Folks - I just want to let everyone know that all the comments/feedback hasn't gone on deaf ears, its been very helpful and I've been following in listen-only mode. I should have an update for everyone real soon that should address some of the issues that has been observed. Stay tuned and continue to share your findings, especially for folks who have been able to consistently reproduce the issues where the USB NIC drops off.
Hi William,
That sounds promising.
However, with the move to native ESXi drives it would be nice if we had access to the NDDK, as otherwise community efforts like this will just die.
Anyway, looking forward to your update…
Jose
Loaded this vib on 6.7 and it installed fine. Rebooted my server but the NIC does not show up.
I run "esxcli software vib list" and there's this line:
vghetto-ax88179-esxi65 6.0.0-1.0.0 virtuallyGhetto VMwareCertified 2019-02-12
When I enter esxcli software vib get, there's this entry:
virtuallyGhetto_bootbank_vghetto-ax88179-esxi65_6.0.0-1.0.0
Name: vghetto-ax88179-esxi65
Version: 6.0.0-1.0.0
Type: bootbank
Vendor: virtuallyGhetto
Acceptance Level: VMwareCertified
Summary: [Fling] AX88179 USB 3.0 NIC Driver for ESXi 6.5
Description: AX88179 USB 3.0 Gigabit Driver for ESXi 6.5
ReferenceURLs:
Creation Date: 2016-11-01
Depends:
Conflicts:
Replaces:
Provides:
Maintenance Mode Required: False
Hardware Platforms Required:
Live Install Allowed: True
Live Remove Allowed: True
Stateless Ready: True
Overlay: False
Tags:
Payloads: payload1
Actual NIC is Plugable USB3-E1000.
"esxcli network nic list" does not show the NIC
Any ideas?
Hi Scott,
Have you disabled the native USB driver (vmkusb)? You need to run the following command, then reboot:
esxcfg-module -d vmkusb
Jose
Note: quite interesting output information about the VIB you installed…
Folks - Here's the update I had mentioned last week, we've just released a new Native Driver for ESXi enabling USB-based NICs on a few popular chipsets. Please take a look at https://www.williamlam.com/2019/02/esxi-native-driver-for-usb-nic-fling.html and give it a try. Feel free to share any feedback/comments you have directly on the Fling site where it'll be monitored by the Engineers
Hi William.
I am using vmware workstation to install esxi-6.5.0 update-1
I have below problem with USB network adapter.
I am not able to ping MTU size over than 1468 and above
[root@esxihost3:~]
[root@esxihost3:~] vmkping -I vmk0 -s 1468 192.168.111.100
PING 192.168.111.100 (192.168.111.100): 1470 data bytes
--- 192.168.111.100 ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss
[root@esxihost3:~]
[root@esxihost3:~] vmkping -I vmk0 -s 1500 192.168.111.100
PING 192.168.111.100 (192.168.111.100): 1500 data bytes
--- 192.168.111.100 ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss
If I ping below MTU Size 1468 it is pinging.
[root@esxihost3:~]
[root@esxihost3:~] vmkping -I vmk0 -s 1450 192.168.111.100
PING 192.168.111.100 (192.168.111.100): 1460 data bytes
1468 bytes from 192.168.111.100: icmp_seq=0 ttl=63 time=1.209 ms
1468 bytes from 192.168.111.100: icmp_seq=1 ttl=63 time=2.302 ms
1468 bytes from 192.168.111.100: icmp_seq=2 ttl=63 time=2.014 ms
--- 192.168.111.100 ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 1.209/1.842/2.302 ms
[root@esxihost3:~]
[root@esxihost3:~] vmkping -I vmk0 -s 1460 192.168.111.100
PING 192.168.111.100 (192.168.111.100): 1468 data bytes
1476 bytes from 192.168.111.100: icmp_seq=0 ttl=63 time=1.259 ms
1476 bytes from 192.168.111.100: icmp_seq=1 ttl=63 time=4.977 ms
1476 bytes from 192.168.111.100: icmp_seq=2 ttl=63 time=2.204 ms
--- 192.168.111.100 ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0% packet loss
Below is my usb network details:
[root@esxihost3:~]esxcfg-vmknic -l
Interface Port Group/DVPort/Opaque Network IP Family IP Address Netmask Broadcast MAC Address MTU TSO MSS Enabled Type NetStack
vmk0 Management Network IPv4 192.168.110.23 255.255.255.0 192.168.110.255 00:e0:4c:68:00:9b 1500 65535 true STATIC defaultTcpipStack
vmk1 IMM_Network0 IPv4 N/A N/A N/A 00:50:56:6a:92:d2 1500 65535 true NONE defaultTcpipStack
vmk2 IMM_Network1 IPv4 N/A N/A N/A 00:50:56:69:78:fa 1500 65535 true NONE defaultTcpipStack
[root@esxihost3:~]
[root@esxihost3:~]
[root@esxihost3:~]
[root@esxihost3:~]
[root@esxihost3:~]esxcfg-nics [J-l
Name PCI Driver Link Speed Duplex MAC Address MTU Description
vusb0 Pseudo uether Up 1000Mbps Full 00:e0:4c:68:00:9b 1500 Realtek USB 101001000 LAN
vusb1 Pseudo uether Up 1000Mbps Full 00:e0:4c:68:00:6d 1500 Realtek USB 101001000 LAN
Can you help on this
Thanks
Jason
If it is your only NIC, and you want management to come up after boot in 6.5 U1, add the following to local.sh in /etc:
esxcli network vswitch standard uplink add -u vusb0 -v vSwitch0
esxcli network vswitch standard uplink remove -u vusb0 -v vSwitch0
esxcli network vswitch standard uplink add -u vusb0 -v vSwitch0
works for me:)
thanks so much for this VIB! I love purposing my old machines
Hello. I have added 2 x 2 USB NIC's and 1 x 1 USB NIC to my Esxi6.5 NUC host giving me 6 NIC's in total. I can see the physical adapters in vCenter but am getting errors about things like Network I/O not being available and I am not able to create any virtual switches in the GUI nor add the uplinks. I can do it in command line butt the devices I add do not work correctly. I am afraid these are incompatible. Can you tell me if you know for sure if these NIC's will work with my home lab? Below are the links of the devices I am using. If you could help me validate these I would be extremely grateful as I would like to return them if I can't use them. I am using NUC7i5BNH Intel Nucs.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XP4P422/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010SEARPU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Hi all.
I am a totally begginer with ESXi, however I am trying to Create a vSphere Enviroment.
In this process I am trying to create a custom ESXi image in my personal Laptop Dell 5570, this for homelab learning, I saw I video that they use a Gygabyte BRIX, and all the process goes with no error, but I do not have this BRIX.
(I had disable the Secure Boot on my Laptop BIOS)
However I am getting the "The VIB virtuallyGhetto_bootbank_vghetto-ax88179-esxi65_6.0.0-1.0.0 does not contain a signature." when I try to export my EsxImageProfile on my final step 6
I would like to mention here all the steps that I have done, because I had read most of the comments here and in othere pages and I am still stuck with this export error, sorry for you this can be a easy stuff.
1.
Opened VMware-PowerCLI-6.5 Release 1 build 4624819
2.
Add-EsxSoftwareDepot https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml
Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl C:\Users\Joel\Desktop\VMware_Practice\NIC\vghetto-ax88179-esxi65-
bundle.zip
(This line allow me to install the driver for the usb ethernet 10/100/1000)
3.
Get-EsxImageProfile -name "ESXi-6.5.0-4564106*"
4.
New-EsxImageProfile -CloneProfile "ESXi-6.5.0-4564106-standard" -name "ESXi-6.5.0-4564106-v1" -Vendor "JG" -AcceptanceLevel "CommunitySupported"
5.
Get-EsxSoftwarePackage -PackageUrl C:\Users\Joel\Desktop\VMware_Practice\NIC\vghetto-ax88179-esxi65.vib
Add-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile "ESXi-6.5.0-4564106-v1" -SoftwarePackage vghetto-ax88179-esxi65 -f
(I tried with no -f, not able to figure out how to try with -f switch)
6.
Export-EsxImageProfile -ImageProfile "ESXi-6.5.0-4564106-v1" -ExportToISO -filepath C:\Users\Joel\Desktop\VMware_Practice\ESXi-6.5.0-4564106-v1-Own-USB.iso
Here is showing the signature error that I mention on the top of this comment.
Some person this forum could provide me some support or instructions.
Thank you for this . Was having trouble with the usb nic unbinding itself @ reboot from the management network . Turns out i hadnt ran the autobackup.sh after editiing the local.sh . Great post 😀