Emulex Blog: The Implementer's Blog

Installing or Updating Emulex Drivers on VMware ESXi 5.0

Posted November 22nd, 2011 by Alex Amaya

Most likely, you are not surprised to hear that VMware ESXi 5.0 users no longer have access to a Service Console. You may have also noticed that there are several new features and changes. One change is the install procedure to manually update or install Emulex drivers. Most of the Emulex drivers are inbox drivers and will need to be updated whenever a new version is released. I’d like to share the process for updating your Emulex drivers in this blog post. Other options you may wish to consider are auto deploy, or using the VSphere Management Assistant (vMA) appliance.
Here are the steps to updating your drivers:

  1. Login with your VMware vSphere Client to vCenter Server.
  2. Select the host you want to update or install new drivers.
  3. Go into Tech Support Mode to enable SSH. It is a simple task to perform: Highlight the host-> select Configuration Tab -> then select Security Profile from the software table of contents. Highlight TSM-SSH then Properties. Once you enable SSH, a warning symbol will appear to let you know your host is no longer secure. See VMware KB 1016205 & 2003637.
  4. From your Windows or Linux client, download the Emulex driver for the adapter and store it in a temporary location.
  5. From your Windows or Linux client, run a program such as WinSCP for Windows and move the driver you downloaded from VMware’s website to the ESXi host. I prefer to place the Emulex driver in the /var/log/vmware directory.
  6. Next, SSH into the ESXi 5 host by using a tool called putty.exe
  7. Once logged in, run the following commands to install the driver:
    1. # esxcli software vib install –no-sig-check –maintenance-mode -d
    2. Example: #esxcli software vib install –no-sig-check –maintenance-mode –d Emulex-FCoE-FC-lpfc829-8.2.3.108.36-offline-bundle.zip
  8. Reboot the host to activate the new or updated driver
  9. If for some reason you need to remove the driver, execute the following esxcli command: # esxcli software vib remove –n –f

We hope this helped you learn how to install or update Emulex drivers on VMware ESXi 5.0. If you have any feedback or questions, comment here or contact Emulex Technical Support.

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  1. Julian Wood says:

    You can also very easily upload the offline bundle into vCenter Update Manager and manage the roll out to all your hosts from within vCenter without having to SSH into each host and install the update manually.

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    1. aamaya says:

      Thank you, Julian. You are absolutely right on to use vCenter Update Manager. Using vCenter Update Manager will be a much quicker and secure process with the roll-out of the offline bundle, especially when you have more than one host. I am thinking we may need to add a piece on vCenter Update Manager.

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