Network Card Driver Issue ESXi 5

networkingvmware-esxi

I have a Silicom PXG4BPi Quad Port Gigabit PCI-X 4 GB ports NIC.
Intel 82546
Running VMware ESXi 5.0.0 Build 623860

HP Proliant DL140 G3

2x Xeon 5160 3.00GHz

12 GB mem

Now I have gone to the Silicom PXG4BPi page. and downloaded the drivers for the card.

I installed the vib for EXSi 5.0
net-bpvm-2.0.1.13.3-1OEM.500.0.0.472560.x86_64.vib

rebooted and ran 

esxcli software vib list | grep bpvm

Output

net-bpvm              2.0.1.13.3-1OEM.500.0.0.472560      Silicom  VMwareCertified   2012-07-31

So it is installed

But I yet it isn't showing the card being mounted.

I have tried to run esxcfg-vswitch -L bpvm0 vSwitchX
and get 

Failed to add uplink bpvm0 to vswitch vSwitch1, Error: Not a valid pnic: bpvm0

Any Suggestions on how to get it to work?

Best Answer

In a pinch, we know Intel and Broadcom cards will always work with VMWare/Linux/etc. and are well-supported. Recall that ESXi is a small-footprint distribution and only has native support for a limited number of devices. @chopper3 was a bit harsh, but the "professional" thing to do is to stick to the hardware compatibility list or substitute supported components as necessary.

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