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New Thunderbolt 3 to 10GbE options for ESXi

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With the help from Aquantia, we now have an ESXi driver to enable the built-in 10GbE adaptor for both the Apple 2018 Mac Mini and the iMac Pro. Although this was exciting news for our VMware/Apple customers, I was actually more excited for what this development meant for the larger VMware Community when it comes to 10GbE accessibility.

Many Enterprise customers have already been using Thunderbolt 2/3 to access their 10 Gigabit infrastructure, usually over SFP+ but Ethernet based options also exists such as the Sonnet solution which I had shared last year. This is especially common for VMware customers who virtualize Apple MacOS on vSphere for MacOS/iOS development and the use of Thunderbolt enables ESXi to connect to the underlying storage and networking infrastructure, which traditionally has been either Fibre Channel and/or IP-based storage running over a 10Gig link.

When you start looking at 10GbE accessibility for VMware home labs which could potentially apply to remote office/branch office (ROBO) and Edge/IoT environments, the cost and the complexity of the setup is something that many folks have to consider. There are definitely some creative options out there, most recently Chad Moon shared his solution using a Thunderbolt 3 to PCIe expansion chassis with his Intel NUCs which will run you about $230 per setup or you can be a true hardware hacker like Jack Harvest and use one of the M.2 slots in the Intel Skull Canyon NUC and connect that to PCIe 10GbE SFP+ card with a custom 3D printed chassis to hide everything for just $43.68 🙂

However, I am guessing that most folks including myself, probably prefer a more plug-in-play option that just works out of the box. This is why I was excited for the Aquantia development because there are a number of Thunderbolt 3 (TB3) to 10GbE adapters on the market that can now be enabled with the new ESXi driver. These devices are pretty small and best of all, it enables you to significantly expand your networking capabilities if you have a system with a TB3 port such as an 7th/8th Gen Intel NUC or Skull Canyon NUC or the Hades Canyon NUC which actually has two TB3 ports. For what you get, this is relatively inexpensive, especially if you are setting up a 2-Node vSAN Cluster with Direct Connect!

UPDATE (04/27/20) - Marvell (formally Aquantia) has just released an official Native ESXi Driver for their AQtion based network adaptors which you can find here and for the complete list of supported devices using this driver, please refer to the VMware HCL here. This driver is supported for both ESXi 6.7 and 7.x

I was very fortunate to have been able to get my hands on several of these TB3 to 10GbE devices for testing purposes, a huge thanks goes out to OWC for the Akitio T3-10G and Dirk Hohndel for the OWC TB3 to 10GbE device.


Once you install the Aquantia ESXi Driver which can be downloaded from here, you can plug in the device into a Thunderbolt 3 port and ESXi should automatically detect the network adaptor.


Here is a screenshot of the latest release of ESXi 6.7 Update 2 running on an Intel Hades Canyon NUC with both the Akitio and OWC TB3 to 10GbE


Below is a table of all known TB3 to 10GbE devices which will work with the Aquantia ESXi Driver, basically any PCIe device using the AQC 107 chipset will be supported.

Vendor Model Interface Cost Confirmed with ESXi
OWC Thunderbolt 3 10G Ethernet Adapter RJ45 $149 Confirmed
Akitio T3-10G RJ45 $199 Confirmed
Sonnet Sonnet Solo 10G RJ45 $179 Confirmed
Sonnet Sonnet Thunderbolt AVB Adapter RJ45 $149 Confirmed
QNAP QNA-T310G1T RJ45 $151 Confirmed 
QNAP QNA-T310G1S SFP+ $176 Confirmed here
CalDigit Connect 10G RJ45 $149 Confirmed here

Note: I am still waiting on the arrival of the last two devices, but I should be able to confirm their functionality once they arrive.

UPDATE (04/20/19) - I recently had to setup a new Intel Hades Canyon NUC for testing additional TB3 to 10GbE adaptors as I needed to return the previous unit. I ran into several issues and with the help from some Intel folks, I was able to update the system to the latest Thunderbolt 3 Firmware. Below are the steps for the Hades Canyon, but they should also be applicable for other Intel NUCs with a Thunderbolt 3 port.

Step 1 - Go into the BIOS (F2 during boot up) and make sure BOTH the Thunderbolt Controller and Thunderbolt Boot settings is checked as shown in the screenshot below. These settings are required to use the TB3 ports. Also, if you are using ESXi with the Aquantia Driver, you will need to disable Secure Boot or the system will not boot up ESXi.

Step 2 - Install Windows 10 on the NUC as the firmware utility is only supported on Windows.

Step 3 - Download and install the "legacy" Thunderbolt 3 driver from here. I initially had used the one found on the Hades Canyon download page from Intel, which links to the DCH version pulled down from the Microsoft Store. It turns out, if you are using that version, when trying to run the firmware utility, you will get the following error:

Error: error 0x208 sdk_service_not_found thunderbolt(tm) service doesn't exist

Step 4 - Download and install the Thunderbolt 3 Firmware Utility from here and then flash the device. You may run into an issue if you have something plugged in, so remove any devices and then perform the update operation. Once the system has been updated, you can install ESXi and any of the TB3 to 10GbE adaptors should now automatically be picked up. Also, its a good practice to update to the latest BIOS update, as of writing this, the current BIOS for Hades Canyon is v54.

Lastly, Aquantia also makes a standard PCIe to 10GbE card for $89 which can be added to any white box setup that has a free PCIe slot. Thanks to Stanislav for sharing the good news on getting the card working with his ESXi 6.5 setup.

In my opinion, this space is only going to get more interesting and with USB 4.0 just around the corner which converges on the Thunderbolt 3 interface, I think it will be exciting to see how connectivity evolves for servers running both within the datacenter as well as on the Edge!

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Comments

  1. Do you (or anyone else reading) happen to know which chipset is in the Monoprice adaptor?
    Have you tested any of the cards on Mohave by any chance? Tempted but see complaints online of sleep/wake crashes.

    Reply

    • Found the answer about the Monoprice adapter--it uses a Tehuti TN9710P (it looks to be a white-labeled StarTech TB310G). You can get the driver direct from Tehuti, look for the tn-40xx VIB. StarTech also has them but not listed for the TB3 NIC, you have to look for the PCIe version (PEX10000SFP). Drivers are unsigned so you'll have to bypass signature checking and set acceptance level to CommunitySupported.

      Reply

      • It is never late to say THANK YOU! I had this monoprice (bought used) parked for months. Cursed the seller, Ebay. monoprice and Darwin for my frustration...and then I Found this post...LOL

        Reply

  2. Sweet! Nice to see some elegant solutions coming out -- I, too, am very excited for the non-Intel-taxed TB3 (aka, USB 4).

    Two minor corrections:
    - The 3D printed 10Gbe expansion ring is for the *skull* canyon, not the Hades Canyon (although, if I can get Intel to donate one to me, maybe I'll make a Hades Canyon expansion ring too).
    - The article mentions "Skull/Hades Canyon NUC which has two TB3 ports", which is true to form for the Hades Canyon - but alas, the Skull Canyon is equipped with only a single TB3 port.

    Good read. I love reading this stuff.

    Reply

  3. But not compatible with QNA-T310G1S (Chipset AQC100) & Skull Canyon NUC
    Tested yesterday 🙁

    Reply

    • I'll ask the obvious (because I really wanted that to work); Did you enable Thunderbolt within the BIOS of the Skull Canyon? (Does it even light up the Eth port?)

      Reply

      • enable T3 on bios : of course yes 🙂
        I can see it on "lspci" :

        0000:02:00.0 Bridge PCI bridge: Intel Corporation DSL6340 Thunderbolt 3 Bridge [Alpine Ridge 2C 2015]
        Class 0604: 8086:1576

        And no light on the SFP+ port 🙁 (FYI, QNA-T310G1S is not an Eth version but a SFP+ port)

        I have tried the 2 vib files :
        AquantiaAQN107-2.0.22.017.x86_64.vib & net670-atlantic-v2.2.3.0-esxi1.4.x86_x64.vib :

        esxcli software vib list | grep -i aqua
        AquantiaAQN107 2.0.22.017 Aquantia CommunitySupported 2019-04-19
        net-atlantic v2.2.3.0-esxi1.4 Aquantia CommunitySupported 2019-04-19

        Nothing on the "esxcli system module list"
        Even if I tried to "--enabled" the module

        So, I'm waiting & hoping a new vib file 🙂

        Reply

        • Did you insert a module or direct attach cable into the SFP+ slot? Perhaps the driver does not work properly without a PHY?

          Reply

      • I have tried the both solution DAC & SFP+ RJ45 module : no light on the QNA-T310G1S.
        But when I tried on my other NUC with Windows all is working fine.

        Reply

    • It does work with the AQC100 with the drivers released in May.
      net670-atlantic-v2.2.3.0-esxi1.6.x86_x64.vib
      dbezrukovaquantia released this on May 28
      I picked up QNAP QNA-T310G1S connected via 10Gtek DAC to my UBNT ES-16-XG and it's connected at 10Gb.
      Got it running on 2 NUC 8i7BEH

      Reply

      • NUC10i7FNH does not recognize AQC100 as PCI device in ESXI 6.7. So, both "atlantic" and "aquantia" not loading. "thunderbolt3 boot" option is not present in BIOS. TB3 firmware and BIOS - the latest. Windows works fine.

        Reply

        • NUC10i7FNH successfully recognized AQC100 after firmware upgrade of AQC100 from 3.1.53 to 3.1.109. lspci -v for it:

          0000:06:00.0 Network controller Ethernet controller: Marvell Felicity Network Adapter [vmnic1]
          Class 0200: 1d6a:80b1

          Reply

  4. You have to allow "thunderbolt3 boot" in bios
    Also all wen't wrong with 6.7 U2. I can't no longer use it for NFS storage

    Reply

  6. I have the PCIE Sonnet Presto 10G working in ESX 6.5 now. I used the net670-atlantic-v2.2.3.0-esxi1.5.x86_x64.vib

    I have noticed that VLAN support doesn't work. Network works fine on the native vlan, but wont when it is being tagged. Anyone else notice this?

    Reply

  8. Any idea if this is supposed to work with NUC8i7BEH ? If i have windows 10 installed, the 10G OWC is discovered. When running ESXi no luck. Also i could not find any firmware update package for TH3 on intel website for NUC8i7beh.
    Has anyone maybe more luck with this on NUC8*beh series?

    Reply

  10. I have purchased a Sonnet SOLO 10G - installed it into Intel NUC7i7BNH Core i 7
    Have installed the vib net670-atlantic-v2.2.3.0-esxi1.6.x86_x64.vib

    The adapter is recognised as VMNIC1 with the speed set to 1000gb as currently I have it plugged into 1GB netgear switch.

    I can ping the adapter locally on the ESXi server - but I cannot ping anything else - it just errors...

    Anyone any ideas please ...

    I'm just testing if this will work before purchasing more adapters ands a 10GB switch.

    Help appreciated.

    Reply

    • Sorry - Yessthe Thunderbolt stuff is switched on in the BIOS and both the ports light up green and yellow. As i said I cannot ping anything connected through the 1GB switch ...

      Reply

  12. Is the Akitio previous generation do also work, the Thunder2 to 10g ? And i guess it will be with the git driver, or those are only for the thunder 3.0 ..
    thanks

    Reply

  13. I got the Monoprice Thunderbolt 3 10G Ethernet adapter working this evening. It does not use the Aquantia driver--internally it appears to be identical to the StarTech TB310G, which is using a Tehuti TN9710x-TB3 board. That board has a TN4010 NIC, a Marvell PHY for 10GBASE-T connectivity, and an Alpine Ridge TB3 controller. Tehuti publishes a driver VIB for the TN-40xx series NICs on their website, and StarTech has it available for download as well. It's unsigned, so I had to bypass signature checking and set the host to CommunitySupported, but I have it confirmed as working on an I7HVK system.

    Reply

  15. Hi, thank you for all your work on this. Ive been using it with 6.7 for over a year. Now im looking to upgrade to 7.0 and wondered if you are going to support this version too please? Thank you.

    Reply

  18. I'm currently experiencing an odd issue with ESXi with my Intel NUC Hades Canyon (NUC8I7HVK). ESXi 6.7 fails to list the Promise SANLink2 10GbE Intel X540 (ixgben) Network Ports via a Thunderbolt3 to Thunderbolt2 Apple Adapter; however, when I use the same HW configuration (with the TB3-to-TB2 adapter) on Windows 10, the Intel X540 network ports are properly detected + configurable.

    https://communities.vmware.com/message/2943957

    This same device works on TB2 or TB1 hosts with the native driver on ESXi as the Intel X540 AT2 is part of the HCL. In addition, I've used this device on multiple ESXi deployments and they works great. I know the TB3-to-TB2 is the culprit but don't understand why. In addition, I have an Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter (Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM57762) connected via the same Thunderbolt chain and the network port get detected with the tg3 inbox driver. It appears that ESXi doesn't know how to address the Intel X540 with the ixgben driver when the TB3-to-TB2 adapter is the intermediary between the host and card.

    Anyone have any ideas why ESXi fails to list the Intel X540 ports as available configurable ports when using a TB3-to-TB2 adapter on ESXi? Again, the same HW configuration works fine on Windows 10 while using an Apple TB3-to-TB2 adapter on the Intel NUC Hades Canyon (NUC8I7HVK). Thanks!

    Also, before throwing in the towel and going with the TB3 options above, I need a dual 10GbE so I can MPIO to my storage via iSCSI.

    I know Sonnet has one:
    https://www.sonnettech.com/product/twin10g-tb3/overview.html

    Anyone tried using this model by any chance with ESXi 6.7? I know the Sonnet Solo 10G works but just thought I'd ask to reconfirm before going with a TB3 option.

    Reply

  19. I have tried on my NUC Skull Canyon the latest driver as published above but still no luck with the Sonnet Solo 10GB adapter which seems to have a AQC107S. I used the vib and installation said successfully applied. Any ideas?

    Reply

    • Same here for a NUC10i7FNK2 and Solo10G. Can't get it working with the latest vib under esxi 7.0. It just won't see the NIC no matter what I do.

      Reply

      • Mine was working fine with and suddenly it stopped working. I am running 7.0.0 (Build 16324942) with MRVL-Atlantic-Driver-Bundle_1.0.2.0-1OEM.670.0.0.8169922-offline-bundle-16081713.zip

        Reply

          • Check Thunderbolt 3 security settings in the BIOS. Should be Basic/Legacy.
            After upgrading my BIOS, suddenly the Sonnet Solo wasn't detected any more.
            Apparently the default for my NUC8i7 was "Not basic"

  20. Hi all, I've been reading these pages for some time while building my little NUC-based datacenter. The information regarding 10 Gb Thunderbolt NICs has been invaluable. My 'core' switch is a cheap Mikrotik CRS309-1G-8S+IN unit which I chose for both price and the lack of a fan. The only affordable Thunderbolt SFP+ NIC I found is the Qnap QNA-T310G1S. The old driver apparently has some issues - under ESXi 6.7 the NIC was horribly slow. Even though the link was established at 10 Gb I got transfer speeds below 1 Gb. Apple's TB2 - Gb NIC was faster. The new native driver OTOH is something else entirely. Like 10 Gb 🙂 I've upgraded to vSphere 7, works just as well.

    The QNA-T310G1S is a nice piece of kit (with the native driver) so I purchased a QNA-T310G1T for a NUC that's in another part of the house. It appears to work as well as its SFP+ bretheren, stable 10 Gb over a short Cat5e patch cable is no problem. The noise however... You simply cannot use the NBASE-T version in an office environment. It has an incredibly noise fan which kicks in after a few minutes and never stops, whether the card is under load or not. It's nearly as loud as my NUC10i7's when they're running at full throttle. I'm going to keep the QNA-T310G1S's but unless Qnap can find a solution the QNA-T310G1T is going away. Behavior is the same under Windows 10 as it is under ESXi 7 by the way.

    I was considering the Startech TB310G but found this in the tech specs 'Due to technical limitations of the IC solution, max bandwidth is limited to about 7.5 Gbps'. Does anyone know if the same applies to other (Aquantia ) TB3 10 Gb NICs or only to the Tehuti-based ones? Come to think of it I'm not sure if the Tehuti will work with ESXi 7.

    Reply

  21. I cannot seem to get the native vib to load under 7.0. says it was skipped. not sure if I am doing something wrong, or missing a step? using QNA-T310G1T.

    Reply

  22. I have purchased the OWC adapter (owctb3adp10gbe) and downloaded the native driver by following your links but I am unable to get it to install. I Keep getting this error:

    esxcli software vib install /tmp/MRVL-Atlantic-Driver-Bundle_1.0.2.0-1OEM.670.0.0.8169922-16081713.zip
    Error: Unknown command or namespace software vib install /tmp/MRVL-Atlantic-Driver-Bundle_1.0.2.0-1OEM.670.0.0.8169922-16081713.zip

    Any help would be appreciated

    Reply

  23. I am having an issue with my lab setup:
    4x Intel NUC8i5BEH
    4x Sonnet Solo 10G (TB3 to 10GBE) using native atlantic network driver for VMware ESXi 1.0.2.0
    Netgear XS708T (10GBE Swich)
    ESXi 7.0b (build 16324942)

    When I change the MTU on the vSphere Distributed Switch to anything higher than 1500bytes, I will run into TCP connectivity issues:
    - connection between vCenter and ESXi hosts 'sometimes' is broken (usually it works for a while and then it's disconnected)
    - TCP connection (e.g. Web-Sessions, SSH,...) are getting extremely slow
    - When using pktcap-uw to capture the packets I see a lot of re-transmissions and duplicate packets
    - frame size on the physical switch is set to 9198bytes
    - VMKPING with DF-flag (do not fragement) is working fine
    - this only happens if network traffic is traversing the physical network (VMs on the same ESXi hosts are not affected)
    - when changing the MTU on the vDS back to 1500bytes everything is fine again
    - but I need MTU >1600 for Geneve encapsulation (NSX-T)

    Any ideas?

    Reply

  24. I have a problem upgrading my ESXi 7.0 hosts to 7.0 Update 1 and I think the Atlantic driver for the OWC Thunderbolt 3 to 10G Ethernet controllers may be at fault, as no other third-party VIBs are installed.

    I am getting the following error from VUM when I try the update:

    "The host returns esxupdate error codes: -1. Check the Update Manager log files and esxupdate log files for more details."

    I created a log bundle (1.62GB compressed) on the vCSA and looked at the VUM logs. There are no entries for the host involved.

    On the host, no esxupdate.log file is created.

    I realize Update 1 is very new. Is anyone else running this or similar VIBs experiencing this problem?

    Reply

  25. is the vib on github the correct one net670-atlantic-v2.2.3.0-esxi1.6.x86_x64.vib or is the one from vmware MRVL-Atlantic-Driver-Bundle_1.0.2.0-1OEM teh correct one. I tried the latter first as it seems most recent however my esxi (mac pro 6, 1) didnt recognize the akitio thunder2 10 gig adaptor. Trying to use the one available on git hub now but getting the following error

    esxcli software vib install -v "/vmfs/volumes/5fee2b1d-607e7cd0-c315-003ee1c9aee7/net670-atlanti
    c-v2.2.3.0-esxi1.6.x86_x64.vib"
    [ProfileValidationError]
    File path of '/usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/atlantic' is claimed by multiple non-overlay VIBs: {'MRVL_bootbank_atlantic_1.0.2.0-1OEM.670.0.0.8169922', 'Aquantia_bootbank_net-atlantic_v2.2.3.0-esxi1.6'}
    Please refer to the log file for more details.

    Reply

  26. Thanks for the feedback. Were there any other dependents vibs? I believe I have all the requirements listed here but I am not seeing the 10gb recognized

    esxcli network nic list
    Name PCI Device Driver Admin Status Link Status Speed Duplex MAC Address MTU Description
    ------ ------------ ------ ------------ ----------- ----- ------ ----------------- ---- -----------
    vmnic0 0000:0b:00.0 ntg3 Up Up 1000 Full 00:3e:e1:9X:XX:XX 1500 Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM57762 Gigabit Ethernet
    vmnic1 0000:0c:00.0 ntg3 Up Up 1000 Full 00:3e:e1:X9:XX:XX 1500 Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM57762 Gigabit Ethernet
    [root@ESXI3:~] esxcli software vib list | grep MRVL
    atlantic 1.0.2.0-1OEM.670.0.0.8169922 MRVL VMwareCertified 2021-01-26

    Reply

    • No, that’s it. My guess is the NIC type is either not AQC or it’s one that’s not supported with driver.

      Can you share output of lspci -v for the TB2 NIC?

      Reply

  27. crap maybe the chip set is different

    Class 0604: 8086:1d10
    Class 0300: 1002:679e
    Class 0403: 1002:aaa0
    Class 0300: 1002:679e
    Class 0403: 1002:aaa0
    Class 0106: 144d:1600
    0000:10:00.0 Bridge PCI bridge: PLX Technology, Inc. Device 8723
    Class 0604: 10b5:8723
    Class 0604: 10b5:8723
    Class 0604: 10b5:8723
    Class 0604: 10b5:8723
    Class 0604: 10b5:8723
    Class 0604: 10b5:8723
    0000:12:00.0 Serial bus controller USB controller: Fresco Logic FL1100 USB 3.0 Host Controller
    Class 0c03: 1b73:1100
    0000:19:00.0 Network controller Ethernet controller: Tehuti Networks Ltd. TN9210 10GBase-T Ethernet Adapter

    Reply

    • Yup, not Aquantia (which is now part of Marvell). Guessing these models were using different vendor and when going to TB3, they switched to AQC. Without drivers, it will not be detected by ESXi

      Reply

  28. I am having issues with the official driver and my new QNAP QNA-T310G1S. It was on the list of supported devices by the Marvell driver. The following shows the driver installed on my NUC:
    MRVL_bootbank_atlantic_1.0.2.0-1OEM.670.0.0.8169922
    Name: atlantic
    Version: 1.0.2.0-1OEM.670.0.0.8169922
    Type: bootbank
    Vendor: MRVL
    Acceptance Level: VMwareCertified
    Summary: Network driver for Marvell AQtion Ethernet Controllers
    Description: Native atlantic network driver for VMware ESXi
    ReferenceURLs:
    Creation Date: 2020-03-03
    Depends: vmkapi_2_5_0_0
    Conflicts:
    Replaces:
    Provides:
    Maintenance Mode Required: True
    Hardware Platforms Required:
    Live Install Allowed: False
    Live Remove Allowed: False
    Stateless Ready: True
    Overlay: False
    Tags: PCIID 1d6a0001, PCIID 1d6a00b1, PCIID 1d6a07b1, PCIID 1d6a08b1, PCIID 1d6a09b1, PCIID 1d6a11b1, PCIID 1d6a12b1, PCIID 1d6a80b1, PCIID 1d6a87b1, PCIID 1d6a88b1, PCIID 1d6a89b1, PCIID 1d6a91b1, PCIID 1d6a92b1, PCIID 1d6ad100, PCIID 1d6ad107, PCIID 1d6ad108, PCIID 1d6ad109, module, driver
    Payloads: atlantic

    When I query the host for NICs, I get the following:
    [root@desx2:~] esxcfg-nics -l
    Name PCI Driver Link Speed Duplex MAC Address MTU Description
    vmnic0 0000:00:1f.6 ne1000 Up 1000Mbps Full 1c:69:7a:63:2a:20 1700 Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection (10) I219-V
    vusb0 Pseudo uether Up 1000Mbps Full 00:e0:4c:68:19:6a 1700 Realtek USB 101001000 LAN
    vusb1 Pseudo uether Up 1000Mbps Full 00:e0:4c:68:1b:07 1700 Realtek USB 101001000 LAN

    The two USB 1Gb adapters and the onboard adapter are found, but not the TB adapter one. There is a light on the back of the adapter so it is getting power. I am using a known good DAC to connect it to my Ubuiquity 16 XG switch.

    System has been rebooted several times. I have verified the BIOS has Thunderbolt support Enabled and the security mode to be Legacy.

    What am I missing???

    Thank you!

    Reply

    • Ok, I finally figured it out. After reloading the NUC temporarily with Win10 to update the firmware on both the NUC and the QNA-T310G1S, I was encouraged by being able to access the network in Windows. I reloaded the device to ESXi and installed the VMware Certified driver and the card was not functional again. I verified all of the settings (or so I thought) in the BIOS. After reviewing the photos above, I noticed I had not adjusted the Boot Priority setting for the Thunderbolt interface. I'm not sure why having this setting in there would enable ESXi to see the hardware and load the kernel module, but it did. I'll be posting a full rundown of the troubleshooting commands and screenshots from the NUC 10th Gen BIOS on my Blog. But I wanted to share here as well since the solution was staring at me in the face--just didn't make the connection at first.

      Thanks!

      Reply

  29. Yesterday I upgraded the firmware of one of my Qnap QNA-T310GS from 3.1.109 to 3.1.121 on a NUC 10 ESXi 7 U1 host. The NIC was still detected, showed as connected on the VMware console but didn't actually have a connection. I downgraded the firmware again and everything went back to normal.

    Beware with new firmware on AQC100/AQC107 adapters.

    Reply

  30. Tons of good info here but a bit unsure now. I have an Intel NUC NUC8i7HVK. I really want to put a 10gb adapter in there so I need a TB3 to ??.
    To be clear, are there any of these adapters that work with this NUC and ESXi 7.0U2?

    Reply

    • It should be a super easy way to confirm is to simply install ESXi 8.0u1 on another USB key, then you can test it out yourself to ensure it works w/o messing with your existing setup.

      Reply

  32. Amazing Stuff here... on an older nuc with the QNAP eth adapter. Working a treat. Love the site! Keep it up.

    Reply

  33. Awesome. That was really helpful getting my TB3 to PCIe running.
    That BIOS settings did the Trick to recognize the Intel X550 Adapter with ESXi 7.0 U3.

    Reply

  34. Sonnet TB3 10G Adapter working flawless in ESXI 6.7.
    But won't load in ESXi 8.0 on the same machine?
    Ispci lists the adapter, but vmkernel.log says FW kickoff failed.

    I already tried different atlantic drivers...could it be a Thunderbolt/PCie issue?

    Does anyone know a solution?

    Reply

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