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I just put a new ASUS M5A78L-M LX Motherboard into my server and it's working well but VMWare doesn't seem to be seeing the onboard NIC. I saw somewhere that ESXI 5.0 supports the onboard NIC but I haven't found anything else. Do I need to install a driver for the NIC? Where can I find out more about whether it's compatible?

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  • This is a question for the VMWare support, rather than for SF.
    – Jenny D
    Apr 3, 2013 at 8:13
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    ESXi on a $60 low-end desktop motherboard? I hope it is at least better than the motherboard it replaced. Apr 3, 2013 at 8:22
  • It clearly isn't working well if ESXi doesn't see the NIC. Is your motherboard on the compatibility guide? vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php
    – dunxd
    Apr 3, 2013 at 10:55

2 Answers 2

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According to ASUS web pages, the Realtek 8111E NIC chip is used, and a google search suggests this has been made to work on ESXi 5, and that it can be used with 4 too but does not work very well or very reliably.

If such things are not documented: First thing to find out in such a case is what NIC chip is actually used...best run some live Linux CD and run lspci, then research the two 16 bit hexadecimal numbers you get.

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The VMware Hardware Compatibility List found at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/ and shows that for VMware does not officially support your ASUS motherboard for any ESXi versions. That doesn't mean it won't run, it just means that it's not officially supported and clearly some drivers are not included.

You can attempt to slipstream drivers into your install ISO by following the instructions found at virtuallyGhetto's How to inject custom drivers into an ESXi 4.1 image using vibddi? The article is for 4.1 but should work the same for ESXi 4.0.

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