Hi!
I`m the same person, but I have work and home accounts here on VmWare 
Marvell controler gets recognised, but disks attached to it are not 
Atheros LAN is recognised so you can install ESX but passes no traffic trough
I have Intel card you mentioned and its working great!
But I think that Atheros LAN worked on ESXi 4.1...
Ah ok! Thanks again for your help and the additional tip re the marvel controller
Hi,
I have a GA-Z77X-UD3H, I used the net-atl1e-1.0.1.14.x86_64.vib from here http://www.aligrant.com/?p=news/archive&v=2012-03
and the esxi-customizer found here http://www.v-front.de/p/esxi-customizer.html, but for some I don't know what reason I can't get the installer to recognise my Atheros 8151.
Did you do something else ( in the BIOS I guess) before installing the custom Esxi disk?
Thank you.
I found ESXi 5.0 needed update 1 to see the Atheros 8151 on my Gigabyte Z77-D3H m/b.
ESXi 5.1 worked fine with net-atl1c-1.0.1.14.x86_64.vib and ESXi customizer.
Using the Intel i7 3770 chip and 32GB RAM as a home lab env.
I found XenServer 6.0 needed additional driver support to see the NIC.
This is very strange. The two motherbords (GA-Z77X-UD3H and GA-Z77-D3H) are practically identical from the chipset point of view - http://www.gigabyte.com.ro/products/comparison/list.aspx?ck=2&pids=4441,4327
Despite this, yours installs the Esxi 5 with the Atheron driver without a problem, but mine doesn't seem to find the network board.
Do you still have the custom iso for the esxi 5.1 used in the installation?
Yes, I do still have the resultant ESXi5.1 iso with the Atheros driver added.
I've attached the log file.
Hi gprentice,
How to use your log file to successfully install ESXi 5.1 on GA-Z77X-D3H ? I am stuck at Network Adapter
Would appreciate your sharing on how to successfully install ESXi 5.1.
Thanks
The ESXi 5.1 iso does not include our NIC drivers, so we have to add them using a slipstream tool.
Use your original ESXi 5.1 ISO and the NIC driver to create a 'customized' install ISO which includes the NIC driver.
The ESXi Customizer was found here: http://www.v-front.de/p/esxi-customizer.html
The driver ( net-atl1e-1.0.1.14.x86_64.vib) was found here: http://www.aligrant.com/?p=news/archive&v=2012-03
The log file I posted was included with the end result ISO file.
I used the new ISO to install to a USB thumb drive, and it works well. Only needed 1gb USB space.
Also added Openfiler v2.99 as a VM to create shared storage. (NFS share or iSCSI)
Added disks (physical RDM) for Openfiler using: http://vm-help.com/esx40i/SATA_RDMs.php
Added another ESXi host and created a cluster for my home lab.
Hi gprentice,
Wow, you are light years ahead of me, I'll try out the steps and I'm sure I'll have more questions come to you and this community 
Thanks
Moved the post to the community hardware section of the forum
I'm finding it difficult to find solid information about vt-d support on IB boards and was hoping the community could confirm/deny support on the current offerings.
The only manufactuer I've seen that claims support on any of their boards is ASRock; the manuals for the majority of their lineup mention it in passing.
I found this forum post which seems to indicate GIGABYTE is working on vt-d support and offer beta BIOS versions to enable it at your own peril: http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/48493-x58a-ud7-rev1-vt-d.html
As for ASUS, they seem to be claiming that vt-d support on newer chipsets is "impossible due to hardware limitations". Some useful information can be found on this forum: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1688360&page=6
The ASUS rep indicates that only Q-series chipsets were validated by Intel to be fully vt-d capable. Apparently ASUS is having trouble passing Intel's vt-d conformance test suite, which leads me to question whether or not ASRock is being disingenuous about their claim to support vt-d; evidently at least some people have had success with ASRock's boards, however.
Aside from motherboards, if anyone can offer advice on setting up VGA passthrough under ESXi, I'd be very appreciative. I know this isn't an officially supported feature, but it seems others have gotten it to work, and I'm willing to put in the time to make it work for me. I've heard various reports that nVidia cards are no good for this, but all I have right now is a GTX 460. I'd like not to have to buy a new card unless necessary; can anyone out there report success with this card and/or other nVidia cards?
This thread seems to sum it up nicely: http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=930620&page=101
"None of the ASUS Z77 motherboards support VT-d. Not even the $450 "workstation" model. Or at least, VT-d is not mentioned anywhereby ASUS.
Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H supports VT-d, UD3H does not. I'm not paying an extra $100 for VT-d.
Most (or all) MSI Z77 motherboards support VT-d but may not support offset voltage or turbo overclocking.
Most (or all) ASRock Z77 motherboards support VT-d, support offset voltage, and turbo overclocking.
It really boggles the mind how ASRock has seemingly got more things right more than ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI."
I love that last line; something extremely strange is going on here =/
Anyway, I think I'm going to go ahead and give ASRock a shot. I'm leaning toward their Mini ITX offering: http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=Z77E-ITX
So I have the Gigabyte z77x-ud5h and unfortunatley neither of the NIC are supported by the latest build of ESXI 5.0 U1. I am trying to find a very minimal build myself that supports VT-D as it's going to be running 24/7.
I'm trying to build a white box ESXi server with VT-d so I can do some I/O tests with VMFS5 vs RDM (http://communities.vmware.com/message/2025131). I have bought a i7-3770 which definitely has VT-d enabled (note the 3770K doesn't) and was going to use an ASUS P8Z77V-LX motherboard until I read this post and others suggesting ASUS don't have VT-d support.
Edit: ASUS note: I found http://support.asus.com/Search/KDetail.aspx?SLanguage=en&no=FAAEFAAE-E173-829C-A73E-719972F26277&t=2 which says "For the P8B WS motherboard, you have to update the BIOS to 0604 or later version to support the VT-d function. And you can enable the function in Advanced > System Agent Configuration > VT-d of BIOS menu." Unfortunately to run an IB processor you need the new (16 May) BIOS 2009 version but to upgrade the MB from 0904 (previous version) you need a SandyBridge processor...
So, whilst it's more expensive, the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H does seem to support VT-d (see page 54 of manual v1003 http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4139#manual). Norbs - have you had VT-d successfully working (e.g. USB pass through into a VM)?
Now, looking at NICs - the Gigabyte website and manual it doesn't give the NIC chips, only:
There's a discussion here where someone has had trouble with the drivers for a physcial OS install. Gigabyte only have Windows drivers to download at the moment. Any clues as to what the NIC chips are? It might be possible to include the drivers from somewhere in an oem.tgz if we can work out what they are.
Norbs - apart from this is ESXi 5 working OK?
Message was edited by: Simon.H - added ASUS note
Looks like the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H also supports VT-d, although I can't see it mentioned in the v1003 manual:
http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/48393-does-ga-z77x-ud3h-support-vt-d.html
It's got one NIC: Atheros GbE LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)
Actually it seems like most of the GA Z77 boards may support VT-d: D3H, UD3H, UD5H. I'm now considering the GA-Z77X-D3H and it specifically mentions VT-d in the v1004 manual for it.
Simon Haslam wrote:
I'm trying to build a white box ESXi server with VT-d so I can do some I/O tests with VMFS5 vs RDM (http://communities.vmware.com/message/2025131). I have bought a i7-3770 which definitely has VT-d enabled (note the 3770K doesn't) and was going to use an ASUS P8Z77V-LX motherboard until I read this post and others suggesting ASUS don't have VT-d support.
Edit: ASUS note: I found http://support.asus.com/Search/KDetail.aspx?SLanguage=en&no=FAAEFAAE-E173-829C-A73E-719972F26277&t=2 which says "For the P8B WS motherboard, you have to update the BIOS to 0604 or later version to support the VT-d function. And you can enable the function in Advanced > System Agent Configuration > VT-d of BIOS menu." Unfortunately to run an IB processor you need the new (16 May) BIOS 2009 version but to upgrade the MB from 0904 (previous version) you need a SandyBridge processor...
So, whilst it's more expensive, the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H does seem to support VT-d (see page 54 of manual v1003 http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4139#manual). Norbs - have you had VT-d successfully working (e.g. USB pass through into a VM)?
Now, looking at NICs - the Gigabyte website and manual it doesn't give the NIC chips, only:
- 1 x Atheros GbE LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit) (LAN1)
- 1 x Intel GbE LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit) (LAN2)
There's a discussion here where someone has had trouble with the drivers for a physcial OS install. Gigabyte only have Windows drivers to download at the moment. Any clues as to what the NIC chips are? It might be possible to include the drivers from somewhere in an oem.tgz if we can work out what they are.
Norbs - apart from this is ESXi 5 working OK?
Message was edited by: Simon.H - added ASUS note
No have not tried. This is my main desktop machine and I was simply testing how if it's supported before going and dropping the money into another ivy bridge cpu/mobo/memory. So once it didn't see a NIC I didn't go beyond that.
If you end purchasing a lower end gigabyte, please post your results here. I'd love to see a confirmed 100% working motherboard in this forum especially with a gigabyte mobo. I will do the same if I discover anything...
I like SuperMicro motherboards, was using the X8SIL-F-O with a Xeon X3450 in it and VT-d worked fine on that, I've now upgraded to a X9SCM-F-O and an E3 Xeon and it works on that too. Only caveat is that you have to use a Xeon instead of a desktop processor.
Alright so I got a chance to play with this a bit more on my GA-Z77X-UD5H...
First off I used a tool called ESXi Customizer to install a VIB for the Intel onboard NIC.
http://v-front.blogspot.com/p/esxi-customizer.html
Using this VIB that I found on a forum: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27246203/E1001E.tgz
Once I did this I was able to boot into ESXi and install it just fine.
As far as passthrough goes, it give me options but I've been having a hell of a time to get VGA passthrough to work. The only thing I got to passthrough perfectly was a USB root hub which allowed me connect USB devices directly to a few select ports and they went directly to the VM.
I'm still playing with VGA passthrough but running into weird errors depending on how much RAM I assign the VM. Seems like anything over about 1GB throws errors when passthrough is configured.
I'll keep playing with this and post back if I have more success. So far I corrupted some drivers in my win 7 x64 install so I'm installing a fresh copy as I type this. I'll make sure I take a snapshot this time around.
A quick update: I've just built a whitebox system with an ASRock Z77 Extreme 4 motherboard and i7-3770. I used PowerCLI and Image Builder to create a custom ISO that included the Broadcom driver for the onboard NIC. VT-d pass-through appears to be enabled OK looking in vSphere Client. Will post an update when I've tested some devices in a VM.
@mittel: yes, Xeon chips and server motherboards are far more likely to work for enterprise types of features (I have typically used Proliant DL360/380s in the past as lab servers) but you get a lot more performance for your money with consumer i7 chips.
So I found a MSI board that is Z77, Micro ATX, NIC works out of box and VT-D works (with bios setting change). So far I have been able to pass audio through from the VM to the headphone jack on the board and the VM saw the hardware and installed drivers.
I am having some issues with making a VM that has more that 1GB memory allocated and using passthrough. I'm not sure why but I'm going to keep playing with it and post back.
I picked up the board at fry's for $115 - $10 rebate.
MSI Site Specs:
http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Z77MA-G45.html#?div=Detail
Z77MA-G45:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130647&Tpk=msi%20z77ma-g45
BTW there is another board that is identical to this but full atx as opposed to mini, uses the same NIC as well. I'm pretty sure it will work as well but have not tested but I really doubt it will be any different results.
Z77A-G45:
Enjoy!