Atheros AR8151/AR8161, Realtek R8168/R8169 Custom Driver for ESXi 5.x/6.x

Today let's start how to install officially unsupported Atheros AR8151/8161 NIC.



ESXi do not support uncertified device officially.

but, uncertified device could be installed using custom driver.

First, you must prepare custom driver.

Second, upload the driver to host storage using vSphere client.

Third, start ESXi Shell service and SSH service. these services can turn on by Whitebox's console or vSphere client.

Next, let's connect to ESXi Shell using terminal emulator.

the path after "/vmfs/volume/" may be different from your system.

it's good to use "tab" key(double tab it).



=========================================================================

login as: root

Using keyboard-interactive authentication.

Password:

The time and date of this login have been sent to the system logs.



VMware offers supported, powerful system administration tools.  Please

see www.vmware.com/go/sysadmintools for details.



The ESXi Shell can be disabled by an administrative user. See the

vSphere Security documentation for more information.

~ #

~ #

~ # esxcli software vib install -v /vmfs/volumes/VM\ Data/net-atl1e-1.0.1.14.x86_64.vib          # first trying, maybe fail.

 [DependencyError]

 VIB AR81Family_bootbank_net-atl1e_1.0.1.14's acceptance level is community, which is not compliant with the ImageProfile acceptance level partner

 To change the host acceptance level, use the 'esxcli software acceptance set' command.

 Please refer to the log file for more details.          # you will be meet "acceptance-level" error message. change the level by following command.



~ # esxcli software acceptance set --level=CommunitySupported          # change acceptance-level.

Host acceptance level changed to 'CommunitySupported'.



~ # esxcli software vib install -v /vmfs/volumes/VM\ Data/net-atl1e-1.0.1.14.x86_64.vib          # install NIC driver.

Installation Result

   Message: The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective.

   Reboot Required: true

   VIBs Installed: AR81Family_bootbank_net-atl1e_1.0.1.14

   VIBs Removed:

   VIBs Skipped:          # now, it's done.

~ #


==========================================================================

after installing driver, you must reboot system.

Good luck.



Atheros & Realtek Drivers for ESXi
          ESXi NIC Drivers.zip

Driver list
     Atheros AR8161 driver (ESXi 5.x/6.x)
          net-alx-2.0.0.6b.x86_64.vib

     Atheros AR8151 driver (ESXi 5.x/6.x)
          net-atl1e-1.0.1.14.x86_64.vib

     Realtek R8168 driver (ESXi 5.x)
          VMware_bootbank_net-r8168_8.013.00-3vmw.510.0.0.799733.vib

     Realtek R8169 driver (ESXi 5.x)
          VMware_bootbank_net-r8169_6.011.00-2vmw.510.0.0.799733.vib

     Realtek R816x driver (ESXi 6.x)
          net51-drivers-1.0.0-1vft.510.0.0.799733.x86_64.vib