Configure NIC/Ethernet On ESXI 5.5

Happy new year and healthy 2015.

During the Holiday I was working on my mini Lab and Upgrading the Server i want to use ESXI 5.5 this time,usually the built-in Ethernet card  Intel or Realtek ( Mine ) while the installation i faced an issue that ESXI 5.5 doesn’t identify my Ethernet card and the installation failed.

To solve this issue the normal ESXI iso will not work, because of this you have to create something called ESXI custom ISO using Software called ESXI customizer.

Download it from here.

You make this software work you need to install the original ESXI ISO.

Download it from here.

and The most important thing which is the driver that you need it for Ethernet Card, the driver usually depend on the PC just like to told you before I am using Realtek and you can download :-

  • net-r8168+r8111e From here.
  • net-r8169 From here.
Now you have all the software,  Original ESXI , Driver and the customizer.
Open the ESXI customizer new GUI screen will be open with three box like the below.
Now RUN Button and Check the output Directory Burn the ISO and This is should solve the issue.
Cheers
Osama Mustafa