Tag: drivers

Updating NIC Drivers with VMware Update Manager

Using VUM and DRS to make quick work of driver updates in larger environments.

In my last video, I showed you how to update ESXi NIC drivers from the command line. This method is great for one-off updates, or for small environments, but it really isn’t scalable. Thankfully, VMware Update Manager can make quick work out of driver updates. By taking advantage of fully-automated DRS, VUM can make the entire process seamless and orchestrate everything from host evacuation, driver installation and even the host reboots.

In today’s video, I walk you through how to upload a custom patch into VUM and create a baseline that can be used to update a driver.

Remember, some server vendors require specific or minimum firmware levels to go along with their drivers. The firmware version listed in the compatibility guide is only the version used to test/qualify the driver. It’s not necessarily the best or only choice. VMware always recommends reaching out to your hardware vendor for the final word on driver/firmware interoperability.

I hope you found this video helpful. For more instructional videos, please head over to my YouTube channel. Please feel free to leave any comments below, or on YouTube.

Updating NIC Drivers in ESXi from the CLI

A video walk-through on updating your NIC drivers from the command line for maximum control.

There are a number of reasons you may want to update your NIC drivers and firmware. Maybe it’s just a best practice recommendation from the vendor, or perhaps you’ve run into a bug or performance problem that warrants this. Whatever the reason, keeping your NIC drivers up to date is always a good idea.

There are several ways to go about updating your drivers, but the tried and tested ‘esxcli’ method works well for small environments. It’s also a good choice to ensure you have maximum control over the process. The below video will walk you through the update process:

Remember that finding the correct NIC on the VMware Compatibility Guide is one of the most important steps in the driver update process. For help on narrowing down your exact NIC make/model based on PCI identifiers, be sure to check out this video.

Another important point to remember is that some server vendors require specific or minimum firmware levels to go along with their drivers. The firmware version listed in the compatibility guide is only the version used to test/qualify the driver. It’s not necessarily the best or only choice. VMware always recommends reaching out to your hardware vendor for the final word on driver/firmware interoperability.

Stay tuned for another video on using VMware Update Manager to create a baseline for automating the driver update process!

I hope you found this video helpful. For more instructional videos, please head over to my YouTube channel. Please feel free to leave any comments below, or on YouTube.

Cisco nenic Driver Issue During NSX Upgrades

The nenic driver versions prior to 1.0.11.0 may cause an outage during NSX upgrades.

If you are planning an NSX upgrade in a Cisco UCS environment, pay close attention to your ‘nenic’ driver version before you begin. The nenic driver is the new native driver replacement for the older vmklinux enic driver. It’s used exclusively for the Cisco VIC adapters found in UCS systems and is now the default in vSphere 6.5 and 6.7.

We’ve seen several instances now where Cisco VIC adapters can go link-down in an error state during NSX VIB upgrades. It doesn’t appear to matter what version of NSX is being upgraded from/to, but the common denominator is an older nenic driver version. This seems to be reproducible with nenic driver version 1.0.0.2 and possibly others. Version 1.0.11.0 and later appear to correct this problem. At the time of writing, 1.0.26.0 is the latest version available.

You can obtain your current nenic driver and firmware version using the following command:

# esxcli network nic get -n vmnicX

Before you upgrade your drivers, be sure to reach out to Cisco to ensure your firmware is also at the recommended release version. Quite often vendors have a recommended driver/firmware combination for maximum stability and performance.

I expect a KB article and an update to the NSX release notes to be made public soon but wanted to ensure this information got out there as soon as possible.