Points to consider when changing the motherboard of an ESX or ESXi host

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides points to consider when changing the motherboard of an ESX or ESXi host.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1

Resolution

When an on-board network card fails on an ESX or ESXi host, the motherboard may need to be replaced.

 

When replacing the motherboard of an ESX or ESXi host, consider these points

• No changes to the ESX or ESXi host are needed when identical hardware is being used to replace the motherboard.
• The host boots and recognize the disks, network cards, and connections as a normal boot operation.
• Ensure that the motherboard is using a compliant BIOS by verifying with the VMware Compatibility Guide.