Today’s post is nothing revolutionary I’m afraid and is more for my own reference than anything else. I couldn’t recommend this VMware article more: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=2137854 . It comes with a video too.

I had to update the network adapter and the raid controller drivers

Before you start:

1. Check / Enable SSH using vSphere client:
   • Select the host, click the Configuration tab, and click Security Profile in the Software panel.
   • In the Services section, click Properties.
   • Select ESXi Shell and click Options
   • Change the ESXi Shell options (Start/Start and stop with host).
   • OK.

1. Check full datastore path:
   • Log in as root to the ESXi console through SSH.
   • Run esxcli storage filesystem list
   • Identify the datastore you are going to use for your drivers and record the mount point path ( I am using the ISO datastore so /vmfs/volumes/4e024984-a6c3ca91-a8bf-b499baa912d9 is what I need):

Install:

1. Download drivers from VMware.
2. Extract the contents of the async driver zip file.
3. Identify the offline-bundle.zip file(s).
4. Extract the contents of the offline-bundle.zip file(s).
5. Identify the async-driver.vib file(s).
6. Log in to the ESXi host using the vSphere Client with administrator privileges, such as root.
7. Using Datastore Browser, upload the async-driver.vib file(s) to an ESXi host’s datastore.
8. Enter the host into maintenance mode. (This means either shutting down or migrating all VMs on that host.)
9. Log in as root to the ESXi console through SSH.
10. Run this command to install drivers from the VIB file:
    esxcli software vib install –v /path/async-driver.vib
For example:  esxcli software vib install -v /vmfs/volumes/55a47a7f-11c62c90-711e-d8b190a2deb2/LSI_bootbank_scsi-megaraid-sas_6.606.06.00-
11. Restart the ESXi host.
12. To confirm if the VIB is installed successfully, run this command to check the version:
    esxcli software vib list | grep -i vib_name
    For example: vib list | grep -i scsi-megaraid-sas
    
13. Exit maintenance mode.