The Community Networking Driver for ESXi Fling v1.2.2 has just been released and is a minor update which enables a number of new Intel I220/I221/I225/I226 devices:
- 8086:0d9f Ethernet Controller I225-IT(2)
- 8086:15f8 Ethernet Controller I225-I
- 8086:3100 Ethernet Controller I225-K
- 8086:3101 Ethernet Controller I225-K(2)
- 8086:5502 Ethernet Controller I225-LMvP(2)
- 8086:5504 Ethernet Controller I226-K
- 8086:125b Ethernet Controller I226-LM
- 8086:125c Ethernet Controller I226-V
- 8086:125d Ethernet Controller I226-IT
- 8086:15f7 Ethernet Controller I220-V
- 8086:125e Ethernet Controller I221-V
Hi, I'm trying to make a lab with Asrock Ryzen 4×4 Nuc, but I ran into problems with the network driver from Realtek. Is there a possibility to find a driver for ESXi7 for the 2 Realtek network cards: Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8125 2.5GbE Controller and Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Motherboard (one of many) R8111FPV 1GbE?
Thank you,
Gabriel
No. Realtek has no interests in working with VMware as they would be the vendor to provide such drivers, which do not exists for ESXi 7.x. This is a challenge for any system that uses RTL, which many of the AMD "NUC-like" kits like https://williamlam.com/2021/06/esxi-on-simplynuc-ruby-and-topaz.html
Your only viable option is to use USB Fling NIC https://flings.vmware.com/usb-network-native-driver-for-esxi for networking or look at platforms which doesn't use RTL-based NICs
Thanks William, too bad, Ryzen 7 was a good candidate with 8 cores.
An odd, but related question. Have you heard of anyone with a working for the virtio network device PCI ID 1af4:1000? Trying to run my remote witness on TrueNAS SCALE.
The only options are the virtio nic and good old e1000 (8086:100e)
I've looked around for instructions on how to inject this into an ESXi bundle, but instructions seem to be for an existing ESXi instance. Do you have instructions for how to do this when you dont have ESXi running yet?
See https://williamlam.com/2021/03/easily-create-custom-esxi-images-from-patch-releases-using-vsphere-image-builder-ui.html which literally covers the use case you're referring to 🙂
I kept googling and searching your site but couldnt find it (wrong search terms :)) thank you!
Is there anyway to get the Ethernet Connection (14) I219-V working with ESXi 6.7?
No. You'll need to upgrade to 7.x to use Fling. We have no plans to support anything older
Thanks, William.
So for 6.7U3 homelab I’m probably better off using a USB nic and the fling for that, or do you have any recommendations for cheap PCI NIC’s that are supported?
I’ve spent some time going through the HCL, but copying and pasting into eBay isn’t the quickest route to check for availability!
Regards,
Ryan