VSphere Home LAB with Intel DH87MC Board (I217v Network Controller)

Hardware Configuration:

I built a powefull desktop PC to install vSphere on it and prepare a virtual lab environment. Underneath is the configuration:

Processor: Intel Corei7 4770 (4^th Gen)

Board: Intel® DH87MC

Memory: 32gigs

Storage: 1TB Sata 6

Issue Description:

 ESXi 5.1 stuck with an error massage pasted underneath:

This message is caused by the Intel I217v Gigabit Ethernet Controller whose drivers are not included in the ESXi Base Image. To fix that, you have to create an customized ESXi Image and add the proper drivers.

Solution: Customize vSphere ISO with ESXi Customizer by vFront

In order to get rid of this issue we need to use customized ESXi with correct network controller driver.  Please follow the underneath procedure:

ESXi Customizer is a GUI program that runs on windows OS and is very user friendly too. The program can be used to customize the original ESXi base image with the driver that is not included in originally.

    1.     Download required Files:
     - ESXi 5.1 U1 ISO image (VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.1.0.update01-1065491.x86_64.iso)
     - ESXi-Customizer (ESXi-Customizer-v2.7.1.exe)
     - Intel Driver (net-e1000e-2.3.2.x86_64.vib) (4th Gen NUC)

     2.     Run ESXi-Customizer-v2.7.1.exe to extract the required files

     3.     Run ESXi-Customizer.cmd

     4.  Select the ESXi Image and VIB File

    5.     Press Run!

    6.     Repeat Step 2-6 to add all required drivers

    7.     Burn the new created ISO file and use it in your Intel NUC.