Step one: taking a Network Interface Card inventory on an ESXi host
Step Two: Collect NIC Vendor and device ID numbers:
Step Three: Decode the NIC Vendor and device ID numbers into the format VID:DID SVID:SSID
Example:
- VID = Vendor Id = 14e4
- DID = Device Id = 165f
- SVID = Sub-Vendor Id =1028
- Max SSID = Sub-Device Id= 1f5b
Step Four: Find this device in the VMware Hardware Compatibility Guide
Navigate to the VMware Hardware Compatibility Guide (HCL) IO Devices – https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?deviceCategory=io
- VID = Vendor Id = 14e4
- DID = Device Id = 165f
- SVID = Sub-Vendor Id =1028
- Max SSID = Sub-Device Id= 1f5b
- Select Update and View Results
Step Five: Determine the ESXi host Version:
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2143832
Step Six: Select the appropriate Product Release Version:
Step Seven: Review compatible NIC Driver and Firmware versions:
My NICs don’t support VXLAN/Genenve offloading
But in True Blue Peter style here is one I did earlier…..
As I’m running NSX-T it would be more efficient to use GENEVE-offloading
Step Eight: Collect running NIC driver name, driver version, and firmware version:
