http://www.vladan.fr/realtek-8169-nics-not-detected-under-esxi-5-5/
Hi guys,
In my home lab I have two identical machines which have an on-board Realtek nic and an Intel 1000 nic. Since upgrading to vSphere 5.5 the Realtek Nic has stopped working. I understand that this nic is no longer supported by VMware, however I also understand that is still possible to add the drivers to a custom image and this should work. All the details on this issue and the .vib files required can be found in the attached link.
My question is this:
I want to add the .vib files to my image, but my understanding is that I require either a software depot in the form of a URL, or I need an offline bundle in the form of a .zip file. This has got me a little confused. I can't simply add the .vib file directly? If not, how do I create an offline bundle? Is there already an online software depot form which I can download the .vib??
Am I able to create an offline bundle simply by zipping the .vib files?? Sorry if I'm making this unnecessarily complex, I thought I could just add the .vib to the image via powerCLI.
Thanks.