Custom ESXi5.1 installed on HV no compatibale NICs

[chris.law76]

Hi,

I have installed ESXi-5.1.0-1065491-custom-Cisco-5.1.1.1 to the FlexFlash HV partition on a C220M3 and a C240M3, but on both servers when ESXi loads after a successful install it complains with 'no compatible network adapter found'. 

It works fine if I install to the RAID array and I also tried ESXi-5.1.0-799733-custom-Cisco-2.1.0.3 on the C220M3 to no avail and all firmware is up to date.

Is there an issue using the integrated Intel i350 or am I missing something obvious?

Thanks

Chris

[Manuel Velasco]

Hi Chris,

Do you have any othe PCI base controller installed on this server?

Make sure that the onboard controller is not dissable on the bios?

In theory, if the installation was not able to detect the network controller it would not allow you to install the OS in any storage volume including the raid or the flex card.

[Zaira Vega]

The integrated onboard RAID controller is not compatible with ESXi.

The FlexFlash HV partition should work to install ESXi.

You can also use a mezzanine or PCIe RAID controller to install ESXi.

Make sure the NICs are enabled on Bios.

[chris.law76]

Hi guys,

Thanks for your responses.

Turns out the reason was I had only one SD card in each server and the CIMC stated that the RAID was degraded.  Once I added the second SD, did a hypervisor sync, reset the CIMC and reinstalled ESXi all worked as should do.

Cheers.

Chris