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Automated ESXi Installation with a USB Network Adapter using Kickstart

02.01.2023 by William Lam // 4 Comments

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.

[Read more...]

Categories // Automation, vSphere 7.0, vSphere 8.0 Tags // ESXi 7.0, ESXi 8.0, kickstart, usb network adapter

USB Network Native Driver for ESXi Fling now supports vSphere 8!

11.23.2022 by William Lam // 22 Comments

I know many of you have been holding off on your vSphere 8 upgrade, patiently waiting for a compatible version of the popular USB Network Native Driver for ESXi Fling. Today, the wait is finally over and you can now head over to the USB Network Native Driver for ESXi Fling page to download latest v1.11 version, which is now compatible with vSphere 8! 😀

For those looking to create a custom ESXi images that also incorporates the Fling, you will need to download the latest PowerCLI 13.0 release (due to changes in vSphere 8 for custom ESXi image creation) and also consider using vSphere Lifecycle Manager whether that is through the vLCM UI or using the new vLCM PowerCLI cmdlets or you can use the old vSphere Image Builder interface.

For those in the US that celebrate and/or observe the holiday, enjoy the long weekend!

Categories // ESXi, Home Lab, vSphere 8.0 Tags // ESXi 8.0, fling, usb network adapter, vSphere 8.0

USB Network Adapters without using the USB Network Native Driver for ESXi

02.07.2022 by William Lam // 25 Comments

While browsing the (unofficial) VMware Reddit this morning and came across a thread where the OP was asking for a recommendation on USB network adapters that can be used with ESXi with their Intel NUC, which many replied with their recommendations and a pointer over to the USB Network Native Driver for ESXi Fling, which would be required if you are using one of the supported chipsets.

The community already covered all the basics and I did not have anything to add until I saw the following comment:

To my knowledge at least, there are zero drivers for USB network interfaces without using a fling.

Although this was certainly true a few years back, that the only way for ESXi to see a USB network adapter was to first install the USB Network Native Driver, this is technically no longer accurate due to some recent enhancements with ESXi that may not be very well known.

[Read more...]

Categories // ESXi, Home Lab Tags // cdce, usb ethernet adapter, usb network adapter

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William is Distinguished Platform Engineering Architect in the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Division at Broadcom. His primary focus is helping customers and partners build, run and operate a modern Private Cloud using the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) platform.

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Recent

  • Programmatically accessing the Broadcom Compatibility Guide (BCG) 05/06/2025
  • Quick Tip - Validating Broadcom Download Token  05/01/2025
  • Supported chipsets for the USB Network Native Driver for ESXi Fling 04/23/2025
  • vCenter Identity Federation with Authelia 04/16/2025
  • vCenter Server Identity Federation with Kanidm 04/10/2025

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