VMWare ESXi: how to add network drivers to installation?

Which version of ESXi are you trying to install.. I think the drivers for those are now included in 5.1 (I might be wrong though).

Alternatively, you can try to use the Dell customized build of ESXi ISO to install VMWare and see if those include the required drivers you need.

Another way that can work:

1. Download the offline software bundle for the NetXtreme I cards from VMWare.
2. Download the ESXi Customizer software
3. Extract ESXi customizer
4. Run ESXi customizer as an administrator.
5. Select the ISO file
6. Select the .VIB file for the drivers
7. Select an output directory
8. During the installation, allow ESXi customizer to replace the VIB file
9. ESXi Customizer creates a bootable ISO.
10. Use the custom ESXi ISO to install.

A huge thanks for these tools as they are the only thing that allowed me to get this done quickly.

I'm going to wait to see how the Dell ISO works out and then try this one. I'll mark the answer as correct in that order of which one works.

References

• ESXi Customizer Software [VMWare Front Experience]
• VMWare ESXi 5 whitebox NIC support [ivobeerens.nl]

Make this easy on yourself - get the Dell-provided ESXi images. Those should have all the hardware things you might need.