A longtime community favorite, the USB Network Native Driver for ESXi Fling makes it super easy for users to expand additional networking capabilities for ESXi-x86.
While helping a customer recently, I realized that we did not have a published list of supported USB Network adaptors (VID/DID) for the Fling anywhere, especially after transitioning into the Broadcom system post Day 2.
Note: A quick heads up, the Fling downloads will be re-homed to the Broadcom Support Portal (BSP) under the Free Downloads next month. For more details, please see the announcement posted on the Flings Community.
Fortunately, I still had all of this information and below is the list of all the chipsets, which covers more than 90+% of what you will find in the market, that the Fling supports:
Supported Chipsets
| Vendor | Chipset | VendorID | ProductId |
|---|---|---|---|
| AQUANTIA | AQC111U | 0xe05a | 0x20f4 |
| AQUANTIA | Aquantia Pacific | 0x2eca | 0xc101 |
| ASIX | AX88179 | 0x0b95 | 0x1790 |
| ASIX | AX88178a | 0x0b95 | 0x178a |
| CISCO LINKSYS | RTL8153 | 0x13b1 | 0x0041 |
| DLINK | RTL8156 | 0x2001 | 0xb301 |
| DLINK | AX88179 | 0x2001 | 0x4a00 |
| INSYDE SOFTWARE CORP | Insyde Software Corp. | 0x0b1f | 0x03ee |
| LENOVO | RTL8153 | 0x17ef | 0x3062 |
| LENOVO | RTL8153 | 0x17ef | 0x3069 |
| LENOVO | RTL8153 | 0x17ef | 0x720a |
| LENOVO | AX88179 | 0x17ef | 0x304b |
| LENOVO | RTL8153 | 0x17ef | 0x7205 |
| NVIDIA | RTL8153 | 0x0955 | 0x09ff |
| Qualcomm | NA | 0x1A56 | 0x3100 |
| Qualcomm | NA | 0x0b05 | 0x1976 |
| REALTEK | RTL8152 | 0x0bda | 0x8152 |
| REALTEK | RTL8156 | 0x0bda | 0x8156 |
| REALTEK | RTL8153 | 0x045e | 0x07c6 |
| REALTEK | RTL8153 | 0x0bda | 0x8153 |
| SITECOMEU | AX88179 | 0x0df6 | 0x0072 |
| SUPERMICRO | Supermicro computer Inc | 0x15d9 | 0x1b83 |
| TP-LINK | RTL8153 | 0x2357 | 0x0601 |
| TRENDNET | AQC111U | 0xe05a | 0x20f4 |
Note: If you are looking for specific USB network adaptors, I have shared a few in this this blog post that have worked well for me.
Installation
If you already have ESXi up and running and you would like to install the Fling, you can use the following instruction below:
ESXi 7.x and later
esxcli software component apply -d /path/to/the/component.zip
ESXi 6.5/6.7
esxcli software vib install -d /path/to/the offline/bundle.zip
Reboot the ESXi host for the changes to go into effect.
If you do not have ESXi already installed because you do not have a supported PCIe-based network adaptor, then you will need to author a custom ESXi ISO that contains the Fling driver, which you can follow this blog post for both UI and CLI options.
Are these all x86 ? Are there ARM USB drivers available?
Yes, this is x86 only. There was a version of ESXi-Arm that include Arm-variant of the Fling, but I think that needs to get updated but that would simply be a part of the ESXi-Arm ISO
Finally found here. Thank you, William. I am trying to upgrade my x86 little box by 2.5G NIC since it has 4 USB3.1 slots except 6*i211-RJ45 . I would purchase 2 RTL8156b NIC so that my old machine can build a faster family network. Already bought a Mercury SE106 Pro.
Will there be an USB Network card 2.5GB which does support real nickteaming?
Seems like free users are unable to use the fling: https://williamlam.com/2022/02/how-to-create-a-customized-esxi-iso-without-vcenter-server.html#comment-72600
Any plans to add support for RTL8157 5GbE NICs?
I’ve asked Engr to take a look to see if this can be added in future update
Any update on this yet?
Any updates on this one? would be epic for my NUCS in my lab. I ordered a few of these https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DYTVGVDG?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1
yes, sorry I've been super busy and wasn't able to follow up.
Engr did provide me with a version of the driver for 8.0 Update 3. Drop me an email (see bottom of https://williamlam.com/about) and I can share that for validation
Hi Williams,
Is the latest driver for ESXi 6.5 (ESXi650-VMKUSB-NIC-FLING-39176435-offline_bundle-16775917.zip) compatible with RTL8156(B)? Do you have this zip file? I can't find it anywhere, not even on archive.org.
hi, do you have a plan to support RTL8159 as well?
thanks
Hi, are there any differences between different vendor's Realtek 8156 implementations? Seems that my Type-C USB > 2,5G Ethernet does not handling the MTU values as supposed to be. VMKPING fails over packages size over 1472. All setting is don in VMKernel and vmotion switch as well to MTU9000. Other ESXi hosts with native PCIe Intel 10G chips wotks with MTU9000. Only the NUC with 2,5G failed with rised MTU values.
Realtek chip details reading with a Win11 host: PID: 8156, VID: 0BDA, REV3104.
Priort thanks for your feedback.
REV3104 is RTL8156BG. Low power consumption reported by some. But I think this is a chinese clone of RTL8156B.
Hello, thank you for your clarification. Do you have a proper device (link at least) which conforms to the latest supported list? 2,5G USB3 and no power saving mode? Seems that latest Esxi 8.0.3 does not keep alive the "chip" as many disconnection error I have on vusb0 Physical NIC. Low-power mode is not what I want on Vmotion kernel connected NIC. Any suggestion on other devices tested? Prior thx.
I'm also looking for an older version of the adapter and am using this list as a reference: https://github.com/bb-qq/r8152
Hi, the list is helpful, however the items seems legacy from 2020/2021 - or replaced by a new versions. I have also new chipset, which behaves differently, especially on MTU with 9000. MTU 1500 is fine, but vMotion between hosts and datastores gives higher results on 2.5G with 9000 MTUs.
I'll wait for a new version of the USB Network Native driver release, hopefully will add new chipsets available on market in 2026.
Wish you a Happy New Year!
If you're able to consistently reproduce the issue, please provide a support bundle when you're observing the issue. In general, ESX's USB stack isn't design nor optimized for Networking w/USB, so while the Fling can help enable HW platforms that do NOT have a supported NIC. You should not expect the same level of performance with PCIe-based networking, especially on some of the HW offload capabilities ... just want to set the right expectations.
Hello William, I'm just now testing the Realtek USB NIC with Windows 11 PC with manually forced MTU (took a while I got the NIC from customer). Unfortunatelly, my Realtek 8156 clone is somehow "cut" the packets above 1500. Tested the windows special hardware setting with "netsh interface ipv4 show subinterface" commad, gives the result MTU 9000 as a setting, displayed.
Sending "ping -f -l 8972 192.168.x.x" gives failure. Sending "ping -f -l 1472 192.168.x.x" works ok. Tested unit max MTU is 9014, confirmed.
Seems that the unit "by design" works hardcoded with a max (and limited to) MTU 1500 frames and does not accept other driver commands / settings regarding this value. Windows reporting 9000 as tries to "command" it, but device refused internally.
I agree with you, that is impossible to test or follow millions of units from hundreds of vendors. Dlink units EOL, Trendnet unit EOL, 🙁
Unfortunatelly I bought a wrong device, which I can confirm that works 2.5Gbps, but only withe MTU1500 max.
So, if you can advise me a link, where old chipsets (original 8156) is still availabe, then I'll buy. What I found was only 8156B or 8156BG.
Anyway, thank you for the clarification and the feedback.
Regards, Pal
Hello Stan, I tried one another USB 2.5G vendor (Vention - asked him via email) and confirmed also that only BG version devices available nowadays. So I gave up with RTL8156 clones. Better I wait for a new 5G capable chipset support from Fling for Esxi 8.0 Update 3. I hope will be new release soon, because v1.14 is not for RTL8157 or other new chips.
Trying also USBc 3.2 - 5 GBE with RTL8157 Adapter and has no Luck - Nic will not recognized by FLING - tested with ESXi803-VMKUSB-NIC-FLING-76444229-component-24179899.ZIP
Would be great if RTL8156 / RTL8157 Chips will be supported to get some better NIC performance in the HomeLab.
I have a 1 GBE USBC running, hope to get a better one running - does anyone has successfully implemented a 2 / 5 GBE USB C adapter and can share a product (Amazon Link) - Thanks
RTL8157 is NOT supported by the current Fling ... with that said, we're working on getting 8157 added in a future update. So please stay tuned
Thanks William for the quick reply and your support. Do you have a estimate time, until you will release the updated version? Will this 1-2026 or Q1 2026? Depend on this, I will search for a 2.5GBE or wait for 5 GBE adapter.... 🙂
No specific ETA, but I'm hopeful we'll have something in next few weeks after my initial (functional) test of the updated driver. Obviously, having more folks run through their scenarios will be the most exhaustive and help broader community. I know some folks have found that not all USB NIC are equal (as with any HW) and some have asked for recommendations or things we're explicitly testing with. So for those interested, you can grab https://amzn.to/44ZgrnF which is what I've got as 2.5-5GbE USB NIC (RTL8157). I'm also looking into RTL8156BG options with Engr, but that might be a later update and while there's also RTL8159 (10GbE), we'll never reach those theoretical speed for USB, so wondering if there's any demand for that? If so, we can also look at that when time permits
Sounds good, I'm also waiting for this new Fling version. Just to be sure, the new version with RTL8157 chipset support is designated to Esxi 8.0.3? in this case I'l buy a product from your amzn link provided before. Prior thanks.
Great to hear that the new firmware for the 5gbe will be supported. Where can we see the latest version - is there a release note url or GitHub where we can see if the new version is available- will you drop a note here?
RTL8156 is supported with the latest Fling, can you provide the output of lsusb -v