• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
    • Stephen Foskett
      • My Publications
        • Urban Forms in Suburbia: The Rise of the Edge City
      • Storage Magazine Columns
      • Whitepapers
      • Multimedia
      • Speaking Engagements
    • Services
    • Disclosures
  • Categories
    • Apple
    • Ask a Pack Rat
    • Computer History
    • Deals
    • Enterprise storage
    • Events
    • Personal
    • Photography
    • Terabyte home
    • Virtual Storage
  • Guides
    • The iPhone Exchange ActiveSync Guide
      • The iPhone Exchange ActiveSync Troubleshooting Guide
    • The iPad Exchange ActiveSync Guide
      • iPad Exchange ActiveSync Troubleshooting Guide
    • Toolbox
      • Power Over Ethernet Calculator
      • EMC Symmetrix WWN Calculator
      • EMC Symmetrix TimeFinder DOS Batch File
    • Linux Logical Volume Manager Walkthrough
  • Calendar

Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat

Understanding the accumulation of data

You are here: Home / Everything / The Best Network Card For VMware ESX Home Lab Machines

The Best Network Card For VMware ESX Home Lab Machines

January 31, 2011 By Stephen 15 Comments

I’m building a home/lab server to run a variety of workloads, but VMware ESX is chief among these. Sadly, VMware ESX is especially picky about network interface cards (NICs): Although many are supported, most are intended for servers and thus very expensive and difficult to find at retail. So I set out browsing through the VMware ESX HCL, Newegg, and Amazon to find the best network card for my home lab machine. Here’s what I’ve found out so far.

Desktop NICs Won’t Work

Most of the network interfaces you will find at retail simply won’t work. Realtek is the dominant provider of Gigabit Ethernet controllers for motherboards and add-in cards right now, but none of their chips are natively supported by VMware ESX. The number-two slot seems to be Marvell’s Yukon chips, with Intel’s desktop controllers close behind. None of these will work, either.

Although it is possible to get a non-supported NIC to work in VMware ESX, it’s not a good idea. First, ESX won’t install unless it finds a supported NIC in the box. Then there’s quite a bit of fiddling to get the driver up and running. And you’re left with a potentially-weird configuration that might not support advanced features. It’s a much-better idea to locate and purchase a supported NIC.

Here’s what not to buy

Many inexpensive Ethernet cards and motherboards have a chip with the Realtek “digital crab” logo. None of these will work for VMware ESX. The big “psychedelic M” identifies a Marvell controller. Skip these, too.

Selecting a Functional Home/Lab NIC

My “home/lab” network card criteria are simple:

  1. They are specifically listed on the VMware ESX HCL for version 4.1 with no hacks or trickery involved
  2. They cost less than $100 US
  3. You can easily purchase them at retail from major online vendors (Newegg and Amazon)
  4. They use PCI or PCI Express bus and have 1 or more RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet ports

It’s really amazing how few cards meet these criteria: There are really just a few cards to consider in this range.

Here’s what to buy

PCI Adapters
The Intel Pro/1000 MT server adapter should work, and the dual-port is cheaper on Amazon (Newegg)
PCI Express (PCIe) adapters
The Intel Pro/1000 CT desktop adapter is a cheap and functional PCIe NIC (Newegg) The Intel Pro/1000 PT server adapter is a little more expensive but potentially better-supported (Newegg) The HP NC112T also appears to be well-supported and affordable

Although some have reported success with the very-cheap Intel Pro/1000 GT desktop adapter, I can’t recommend it. I’ve heard many negative reviews of folks trying and failing to get this adapter to work in the latest versions of VMware ESX. I think it’s worth the money to step up to the CT or PT instead!

Note also that I have not personally tried the specific adapters listed and linked here. I intend to purchase one or more over the next few months and will update this post when I do, but I welcome feedback on your experiences with them!

Stephen’s Stance

VMware ESX seems especially picky about network adapters, and the fact that it will not install without a supported NIC onboard is a real stumbling block for users. I definitely recommend picking up a well-supported NIC like the Intel Pro/1000 MT (PCI) or CT/PT (PCIe) or the HP NC112T.

My home/lab machine has two PCIe slots and two PCI slots. I had intended to use a PCI NIC, but will probably buy a Pro/1000 PT card instead. It’s affordable and called out specifically as supported in the VMware ESX HCL. Sounds good to me!

If you have a suggestion for a NIC that fits the criteria above, please do let me know. I’d love to have more choices in this list!

You might also want to read these other posts...

  • How To Connect Everything From Everywhere with ZeroTier
  • Tortoise or Hare? Nvidia Jetson TK1
  • Electric Car Over the Internet: My Experience Buying From…
  • Running Rabbits: More About My Cloud NUCs
  • Introducing Rabbit: I Bought a Cloud!

Filed Under: Everything, Personal, Terabyte home, Virtual Storage Tagged With: Amazon, ESX, Ethernet, gigabit Ethernet, HCL, HP, Intel, Marvell, NewEgg, NIC, PCI, PCIe, Realtek, VMware

Primary Sidebar

An SSD is just a very small storage array

Stephen Foskett

Subscribe via Email

Subscribe via email and you will receive my latest blog posts in your inbox. No ads or spam, just the same great content you find on my site!
 New posts (daily)
 Where's Stephen? (weekly)

Download My Book


Download my free e-book:
Essential Enterprise Storage Concepts!

Recent Posts

How To Install ZeroTier on TrueNAS 12

February 3, 2022

Scam Alert: Fake DMCA Takedown for Link Insertion

January 24, 2022

How To Connect Everything From Everywhere with ZeroTier

January 14, 2022

Electric Car Over the Internet: My Experience Buying From Vroom

November 28, 2020

Powering Rabbits: The Mean Well LRS-350-12 Power Supply

October 18, 2020

Tortoise or Hare? Nvidia Jetson TK1

September 22, 2020

Running Rabbits: More About My Cloud NUCs

September 21, 2020

Introducing Rabbit: I Bought a Cloud!

September 10, 2020

Remove ROM To Use LSI SAS Cards in HPE Servers

August 23, 2020

Test Your Wi-Fi with iPerf for iOS

July 9, 2020

Symbolic Links

    Featured Posts

    What More Could Alan Turing Have Accomplished?

    October 7, 2012

    Scaling Storage In Conventional Arrays

    November 19, 2013

    Marketers: Fudging the Meaning of Buzzwords Matters (To You!)

    December 2, 2015

    My Core i7 Macintosh SE

    May 25, 2017

    The Terrifying True Story Of Virtual Machine Mobility

    December 22, 2011

    A Fairy Tale of Two Storage Protocols

    September 23, 2014

    How to Get Me to Write about Your Company or Product

    March 15, 2012

    Go Get a ProtonMail Account and Protect Your Online Life!

    July 19, 2017

    FCoE vs. iSCSI – Making the Choice

    May 20, 2011

    Introducing Rabbit: I Bought a Cloud!

    September 10, 2020

    Footer

    Legalese

    Copyright © 2022 · Log in