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Quick Tip - Validating Broadcom Download Token 

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As of last month, customers must generate a new download token from the Broadcom Support Portal (BSP) for in-product downloads of VMware software binaries (e.g. updates, security patches using SDDC Manager, vCenter Server, ESXi, etc.). The Broadcom download token must then be appended after the new product download base URI (e.g. https://dl.broadcom.com/TOKEN/...) and this will ensure you will be able to continue to download updates directly or indirectly (via network proxy) from within the products.

UPDATE (05/02/2025) - A new Broadcom KB (395322) has also just been published with additional endpoints for troubleshooting download tokens.

Note: For customers that have setup or are using an offline method to retrieve updates, there are no changes in your workflow, this is only for those pulling software update directly from Broadcom.

A Broadcom download token is scoped to a SiteID and depending on your organization you may have one or more SiteIDs and users can generate a unique download token for each SiteID. It is important to understand that a download token itself does not contain an expiration, while you can revoke an existing token, its validity is based on whether a given SiteID has an active entitlement for the particular VMware SKU that you are attempting to download.

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Supported chipsets for the USB Network Native Driver for ESXi Fling

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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.

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ESXi on GMKtec NucBox K11

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The GMKtec NucBox has been growing in popularity amongst the VMware community as a modern AMD Ryzen-based alternative to the Intel/ASUS NUC, offering many of the same advantages while avoiding some of the drawbacks of Intel's Hybrid CPU architecture.

In preparation for my upcoming session at the inaugural VMUG Connect Conference in April, I have been experimenting with several modern hardware options, with the goal of deploying the full VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) solution for use within a lab environment, while still staying budget friendly!

I know several folks have had great success with the GMKtec NucBox K8 Plus and it just so happens, while browsing the GMKtec website, I noticed an additional NucBox has just been released called the K11.


While the differences between the K8 Plus and K11 is pretty minimal, I was interested in validating some new hardware add-ons, so getting the latest hardware would hopefully give me the best chance!

In collaboration with the VMware {Code} team, I was able to get hands on with the latest GMKtec NucBox K11!

UPDATE (06/25/25) - The K11 can be used to run VCF 9.0, but you will NOT be able to run VCF Automation (VCFA). You can see how I have used the K11 is used in a "Hybrid" configuration in this blog post under Scenario 3.

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