Installing the Emulex Fibre Channel HBA driver on an ESX/ESXi 4.x host

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article identifies how to properly install the driver for an Emulex Fibre Channel HBA card so that it is properly displayed, and working on ESX/ESXi host.

Symptoms:

• You need to install an Emulex Fibre Channel HBA card into an ESX/ESXi 4.x host.
• When installing the Emulex Fibre Channel HBA driver CD to install the lpfc820 driver during the ESX 4.0 installation process, the network configuration screen might show some devices as Unknown devices even when they are supported by the driver.
• After ESX starts, all devices are displayed properly. On ESXi, some devices might continue to be displayed as Unknown devices during normal functioning.

Environment

VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESX 4.1.x

Resolution

Before proceeding, ensure that you download the driver CD for the Emulex lpfc820 for ESX/ESXi 4.0. from the VMware Download Site.

Note: You can use the VMware ESX driver CD to install drivers on ESX or ESXi installations. In addition you can use the driver CD in several ways:

• To install drivers for devices as part of a new ESX installation.
• To update existing drivers or install new drivers for an existing ESX installation with esxupdate.
• To update existing drivers or install new drivers for an existing ESX or ESXi installation with vihostupdate.<?xml:namespace prefix = o />

To install drivers for devices as part of a new ESX installation (for ESX only):

1. Place the ESX installation DVD in the DVD drive of the host.
2. Restart the host.
3. Accept the terms of the license agreement.
4. Select a keyboard type.
5. When prompted for Custom Drivers, select Yes to install custom drivers.
6. Click Add to eject the ESX installation DVD.
7. Place the driver CD in the DVD drive of the ESX host.
8. Select driver module to import drivers to the ESX host.
9. Click Next to continue. A dialog box displays the following message: Load the system drivers.
10. Click Yes. After loading the driver module, continue installing ESX. After the drivers are installed you are prompted to swap the driver CD with the ESX installation DVD.

To update or add drivers on existing ESX installations using esxupdate (for ESX only):

1. Power on the ESX host and log into an account with administrator capability.
2. Place the driver CD in the CD-ROM drive of the ESX host.
3. Mount the driver CD.
4. Navigate to <cd mount point>/offline-bundle/ and locate the <offline-bundle>.zip file.
5. Run the esxupdate command to install drivers using the offline bundle.

esxupdate --bundle=<offline-bundle>.zip update

To update or add drivers on existing ESX and ESXi installations using vihostupdate (for both ESX and ESXi):

1. Power on the ESX or ESXi host.
2. Place the driver CD in the CD-ROM drive of the host where either the vSphere CLI package is installed or vMA is hosted.
3. Mount the driver CD.
4. Navigate to <cd mount point>/offline-bundle/ and locate the <offline-bundle>.zip file.
5. Run the vihostupdate command to install drivers using the offline bundle.

vihostupdate <conn_options> --install --bundle <offline-bundle>.zip

For more details on vihostupdate, see the vSphere Command-Line Interface Installation and Reference Guide.