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VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) using USB Network Adaptor

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To deploy VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), your physical or virtual ESXi host must have at least two network adaptors to be able to migrate to Distributed Virtual Switch (VDS), which is configured as part of the VCF Bringup process. While you can technically migrate to a VDS with just a single network adaptor using this trick, it is definitely easier if you have a system that meets this basic requirement.

Earlier this year, I demonstrated that you can deploy VCF using just an Intel NUC with only 64GB of memory, which would be the minimum to run single node VCF Management Domain, however it does not leave you with much room for running other workloads due to pushing the memory limits.

The ASUS PN64-E1 is currently one of my top favorite small form factor kits, especially being able to support up 96GB of memory using the new non-binary DDR5 memory modules. After the release of VCF 5.1, I wanted to use the ASUS PN64-E1 for a VCF deployment, but there was only one problem ... my particular configuration of the PN64-E1 only had a single network adaptor!

I thought I could out smart the VCF Bringup pre-check by using a USB network adaptor and installing the popular USB Network Native Driver for ESXi 😉

However, it turns out the pre-check is looking for PCIe-based network adaptors, so while the system does have two network adaptors, it still failed the pre-check and prevented the deployment from continuing. I ended up reaching out some of the VCF Engineers to see if there were any workarounds and he was kind enough to provide me with a nice workaround that would benefit our users looking to play and explore VCF in a lab environment.

Disclaimer: This is not officially supported by Broadcom, use at your own risk.

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How to enable passthrough for USB Network Adapters claimed by ESXi CDCE Driver?

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As part of vSphere 7.0, ESXi now ships with a USB CDCE (Communication Device Class Ethernet) driver which can benefit customers with SB network adapters that support the CDCE specification as shared in this blog post HERE. This can especially be useful for those running a VMware Homelab where the onboard network adapter may not be supported and using a CDCE USB network adapter would allow you to install ESXi.

When a CDCE-supported USB network adapter is connected to an ESXi host, it will automatically be claimed by the CDCE driver as shown in the screenshot below.


If you are planning to use the USB network adapter for VMkernel traffic, then there is no workflow change like any other physical network adapter. However, if you intend to passthrough the USB network adapter to a VM, then you may find that it is not working as expected.


The reason for this is that ESXi has already claimed the USB device, assuming you wish to use it for VMkernel traffic. To change the behavior for a particular CDCE-supported USB network adapter, we just need to apply a USB Quirk which tells ESXi to ignore this adapter.

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Automated ESXi Installation with a USB Network Adapter using Kickstart

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I have been working with the Project Keswick team for quite some time now, which is an OCTO project is lead by my good friend Alan Renouf, who is doing some really innovative work with ESXi at the edge and application deployment using a desired state engine.

Recently I had met with the team to discuss some of the options for their automated deployment which uses the tried and true ESXi scripted installation aka ESXi Kickstart. One thing that I had shared was just how powerful the %pre section within the kickstart is and can be used to redefine or update the original kickstart based on your installation criteria. For example, you could pull down external configuration files and determine at runtime to decide how you want to configure your networking to even fully bootstrapping a local vSAN datastore and this would all happen prior to ESXi installer starting. I have used the %pre section numerous times as a customer and also demonstrated in my USB-to-SDDC project which has also been an inspiration for the Project Keswick team.

One very cool capability that Project Keswick is enabling is the integration of the popular USB Network Native Driver for ESXi and one challenge they had faced with automating an ESXi installation when only a USB network adapter was available is additional configuration that must be setup before the installer can begin. They shared their solution and thought this would be a good blog post topic, especially as I know many folks use the USB Network Native Driver for ESXi in their homelab and if you wish to automate the installation, the solution shared from the team could help.

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