how to add drivers to ESXi

I seem to keep needing to do this so I thought I?d write up a very quick post so Its easier to find next time.

I?ve had to do this for our QLogic CNA and installing Dell mib files.

• You need to install the vmware CLI on your workstation.
• start the vmware cli and I have to cd to ?bin? for the commands to work.
• put the server you want to work on into maintenance mode from the vi client
• Then use vihostupdate.pl to do the install/upload

Here is the vmware docs site link for vihostupdate.pl

http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vcli/vcli41/doc/reference/vihostupdate.html

 

The quick and dirty command is

vihostupdate.pl ?server [IP address] ?username root ?install ?bundle c:file_location

You?ll want to use a zip file for driver, they are normally found in the offline-bundle folder of the ISO

For the Dell mibs you just need to use the mib file.

 

Hope this helps someone, I know I use it a lot more than I expected.

Related articles

• Setting up Software FCoE on vSphere 5 (scottlowe.org)
• OpenManage Support for VMware ESX 5.0 (delltechcenter.com)

Tags: esxi dell