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7.0

Tips for using USB Network Adapters with VMware ESXi

Running Intel NUCs and other SFF systems with ESXi is a proven standard for virtualization home labs. One major drawback is that most of the available SFF systems only have a single Gigabit network adapter. This might be sufficient for a standalone ESXi with a few VMs, but when you want to use shared Storage or VMware NSX, you totally want to have additional NICs.

This article explains some basics to consider when running USB-based network adapters with ESXi.

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ESXi VMKUSB NIC Fling adds support for 2.5GBASE-T Adapters

The USB Native Driver Fling, a popular ESXi driver by Songtao Zheng and William Lam that adds support for USB-based Network Adapters, has been updated to version 1.6. The new version has added support for RTL8156 based 2.5GBASE-T network adapters.

Multi-Gigabit network adapters with 5GBASE-T are available for a while, but those 5GbE adapters cost about $100 USD. The new driver allows the usage of 2.5GbE adapters that are available for as low as $25 USD. The driver was released yesterday, and luckily I already own a bunch of 2.5GbE adapters, so I could give it a test drive immediately.

CableCreation USB 3.0 to 2.5 Gigabit LAN Adapter (CD0673)

Read More »ESXi VMKUSB NIC Fling adds support for 2.5GBASE-T Adapters

vSphere with Kubernetes - Which Supervisor Cluster Settings can be edited?

When you want to deploy Kubernetes on vSphere 7 it is crucial to plan the configuration thoroughly prior to enabling Workload Management. Many of the configuration parameters entered during the Workload Management wizard can not be changed after the deployment.

The following table show which settings can be changed after the initial deployment:

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How to add AD Authentication in vCenter 7.0

The vCenter Server has an internal user database that allows you to add and manage users very easily. Users management and Single Sign-On is provided by the embedded Platform Service Controller which is available since vSphere 6.0. In a large environment, you might want to connect your virtualization infrastructure to a centrally manage Active Directory.

This article explains how to add AD authentication in vSphere 7.0 and how to get the "Use Windows session authentication" checkbox to work with the "Enhanced Authentication Plugin".

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vCenter Server 7.0 Tips and Tricks

In vSphere 7.0, the Windows-based vCenter Server is finally gone. Time to move forward and get in touch with the Linux based Photon OS. The following tips and tricks might come handy when working with the vCenter Server Appliance 7.0:

  • Enable SSH
  • File Transfer with SCP/SFTP
  • Public Key Authentication
  • Disable or Increase Shell Session Timeout
  • Password expiration
  • Reset vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 root password
  • Create a Backup Job
  • Remove Certificate Warnings (Root CA)
  • Install Additional Software
  • VMware Datacenter CLI (DCLI)
  • Run Docker Containers

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VMware ESXi 7.0 - IO Devices not certified for upgrade

Beside Server Hardware, also double check if your IO Devices (eg. NIC, HBA,..) are supported when updating ESXi hosts from VMware vSphere 6.7 to 7.0. The following devices were supported in vSphere 6.7 but are according to VMware's HCL not (yet) supported in vSphere 7.0.

  • Not supported does not say that it does not work.
  • The list has been created with the help of my IO-Devices HCL in JSON Format.
  • Did I miss something? Please comment.
  • In vSphere 7.0, VMKLinux driver compatibility has been deprecated and removed.

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How to Install or Upgrade ESXi 7.0b on 10th Gen Intel NUC

To get ESXi installed on a 10th Gen Intel NUC you need a customized image at the moment. How to create the custom image is explained here. The problem is that the ne1000 driver, which is bundled in ESXi 7.0, is not compatible with the NUCs Gigabit Network interface. When you now try to install the latest ESXi patch, the driver is overwritten with the non-working default ne1000 driver.

The solution is quite simple. You can either install the working driver again after patching or create a custom ESXi 7.0b image. The method described here is specific for ESXi 7.0b but might also work for future releases, as long as ESXi 7 is not equipped with a ne1000 driver supporting Intels latest I219-V.

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