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Community Networking Driver for ESXi

version 1.2.7 — March 15, 2022

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The functionality of this Fling is now officially available in vSphere 8.0!

Summary

This Fling is a collection of ESXi Native Drivers which enables ESXi to recognize and consume various PCIe-based network adapters (See Requirements for details). These devices are not officially on the VMware HCL and have been developed to enable and support the VMware Community.

Requirements

  • VMware ESXi 7.0 (x86) or newer is required
  • Any PCIe network adapters with VID/PID listed below are supported

igc-community (All devices below is now available in ESXi 8.0 and newer)

VendorChipsetVendorIDProductID
IntelEthernet Controller I225-LM0x80860x15f2
IntelEthernet Controller I225-V0x80860x15f3
IntelEthernet Controller I225-IT(2)0x80860xd9f
IntelEthernet Controller I225-I0x80860x15f8
IntelEthernet Controller I225-K0x80860x3100
IntelEthernet Controller I225-K(2)0x80860x3101
IntelEthernet Controller I225-LMvP(2)0x80860x5502
IntelEthernet Controller I226-K0x80860x5504
IntelEthernet Controller I226-LM0x80860x125b
IntelEthernet Controller I226-V0x80860x125c
IntelEthernet Controller I226-IT0x80860x125d
IntelEthernet Controller I220-V0x80860x15f7
IntelEthernet Controller I221-V0x80860x125e

e1000-community (All devices below is now available in ESXi 7.0 Update 3f and newer)

VendorChipsetVendorIDProductID
IntelEthernet Connection (6) I219-LM0x80860x15bd
IntelEthernet Connection (6) I219-V0x80860x15be
IntelEthernet Connection (7) I219-LM0x80860x15bb
IntelEthernet Connection (7) I219-V0x80860x15bc
IntelEthernet Connection (10) I219-LM0x80860x0d4e
IntelEthernet Connection (10) I219-V0x80860x0d4f
IntelEthernet Connection (11) I219-LM0x80860x0d4c
IntelEthernet Connection (11) I219-V0x80860x0d4d
IntelEthernet Connection (12) I219-LM0x80860x0d53
IntelEthernet Connection (12) I219-V0x80860x0d55
IntelEthernet Connection (13) I219-LM0x80860x155b
IntelEthernet Connection (13) I219-V0x80860x155c
IntelEthernet Connection (13) I219-LM0x80860x15fb
IntelEthernet Connection (13) I219-V0x80860x15fc
IntelEthernet Connection (14) I219-LM0x80860x15f9
IntelEthernet Connection (14) I219-V0x80860x15fa
IntelEthernet Connection (15) I219-LM0x80860x15f4
IntelEthernet Connection (15) I219-V0x80860x15f5
IntelEthernet Connection (16) I219-LM0x80860x1a1e
IntelEthernet Connection (16) I219-V0x80860x1a1f
IntelEthernet Connection (17) I219-LM0x80860x1a1c
IntelEthernet Connection (17) I219-V0x80860x1a1d

Instructions


Step 1 - Download the Offline Bundle zip file for the Community Networking Driver for ESXi and upload to ESXi host using either SCP or Datastore Browser

Step 2 - Install the ESXi Offline Bundle by running the following command on ESXi Shell to install ESXi Offline Bundle:
esxcli software vib install -d /path/to/the offline bundle zip
Step 3 - Reboot the ESXi host for the change to go into effect. Once the host has rebooted, ESXi should now allow be able to claim and use the network adapter.
Note: For the Intel NUC 11 (Pro/Performance), you will need to incorporate the Community Networking Driver for ESXi into a new ESXi Image Profile before you can install. You can use either the Image Builder UI in vCenter Server or Image Builder CLI with PowerCLI.

Changelog

Mar 15, 2022 - v1.2.7

      Net-Community-Driver_1.2.7.0-1vmw.700.1.0.15843807_19480755.zip
      md5: cd505cfc2e435510b2e23e87870e4822

What's New:
  • Support for additional Intel I225 devices with any PHY ID
  • Support for new Intel I226-K devices with any PHY ID
  • Fixed potential deadlock in changing MTU
  • Fixed potential RX hang in device layer ops
  • Fixed potential PHY reset failure

Oct 29, 2021 - v1.2.2

      Net-Community-Driver_1.2.2.0-1vmw.700.1.0.15843807_18835109.zip
      md5: 5d508eb40d578dd0ec6de3838c8cec13

What's New:
  • Support for additional Intel I225/I226/I220/I221 devices

May 19, 2021 - v1.2

      Net-Community-Driver_1.2.0.0-1vmw.700.1.0.15843807_18028830.zip
      md5: fc3b23201d78d3b0d75c8a4fcad759f3

What's New:
  • Support for Jumbo Frames (MTU up to 9000)
  • Support for Wake-on-LAN (WOL) for Intel i225 NIC

April 08, 2021 - v1.1

      Net-Community-Driver_1.1.0.0-1vmw.700.1.0.15843807_17858744.zip
      md5: 587d7d408184c90f6baf4204bb309171

What's New:
  • Resolve issue when using Intel vPro which can cause ESXi PSOD

February 17, 2021 - v1.0 (Initial Release)

      Net-Community-Driver_1.0.0.0-1vmw.700.1.0.15525992_17594603.zip
      md5: 23eb1a3084b096333ea5789fbfb86ef2

Known Issues:
  • The igc-community driver currently does not include optimization features such as Jumbo Frames/TSO/CSO/VLAN stripping

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