Table of Contents

ESX Adding Custom Drivers

Summary: How to install custom hardware drivers in ESX 4.1.
Date: Around 2012
Refactor: 22 February 2025: Checked links and formatting.

Installing ESX 4.1 (update 1) on IBM x3690 X5 Servers requires custom drivers.

You can use the driver CD in several ways:

To install drivers for devices as part of a new ESX installation

To update existing drivers or install new drivers for an existing ESX installation with esxupdate

To update existing drivers or install new drivers for an existing ESX or ESXi installation with vihostupdate

To install drivers for devices as part of a new ESX installation

(for ESX only)

Note: This procedure has changed since the 3.5 version of driver CD. You will need the ESX installation DVD to begin.

Place the ESX installation DVD in the DVD drive of the host.

Restart the host.

Accept the terms of the license agreement.

Select a keyboard type.

When prompted for Custom Drivers, select Yes to install custom drivers.

Click Add to eject the ESX installation DVD.

Place the driver CD in the DVD drive of the ESX host.

Select driver module to import drivers to the ESX host.

Click Next to continue. A dialog box displays the following message: Load the system drivers.

Click Yes. After loading the driver module, continue installing ESX. After the drivers are installed you are prompted to swap the driver CD with the ESX installation DVD.

To update or add drivers on existing ESX installations using esxupdate

(for ESX only)

Power on the ESX host and log into an account with administrator capability.

Place the driver CD in the CD-ROM drive of the ESX host.

Mount the driver CD.

mkdir /mnt/iso; mount -o loop /tmp/megaraid.iso /mnt/iso

Navigate to <cd mount point>/offline-bundle/ and locate the <offline-bundle>.zip file.

Run the esxupdate command to install drivers using the offline bundle.

esxupdate --bundle=<offline-bundle>.zip update

Example

[root@esx01 offline-bundle]# esxupdate --bundle=LSI_5.29-offline_bundle-379626.zip update
Unpacking cross_vmware-esx-drivers-scsi-megaraid-.. ######################################################################## [100%]

Installing vmware-esx-drivers-scsi-megaraid-sas     ######################################################################## [100%]

Cleaning up vmware-esx-drivers-scsi-megaraid-sas    ######################################################################## [100%]

Running [vmkmod-install.sh]...
ok.
The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the
changes to be effective.

To update or add drivers on existing ESX and ESXi installations using vihostupdate

(for both ESX and ESXi)

Power on the ESX or ESXi host.

Place the driver CD in the CD-ROM drive of the host where either the vSphere CLI package is installed or vMA is hosted.

Mount the driver CD.

Navigate to <cd mount point>/offline-bundle/ and locate the <offline-bundle>.zip file.

Run the vihostupdate command to install drivers using the offline bundle.

vihostupdate <conn_options> --install --bundle <offline-bundle>.zip

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