ESXi 5 - Intel 82579 - PPPoE Through Switch?

dLockers

Hey guys,

I have an awesome ESXi 5 whitebox running various OS's including OpenIndiana/ZFS.

What I would like to do is virtualise my PfSense install to save energy (and remove my Intel 330D box).

Can I connect to my modem through a switch? Or do I have to run a new ethernet cable?

Additionally my Intel 82579 isn't showing up. Has anybody gotten this to work in PfSense?

Many thanks.

biggsy

It would be better to run a new cable unless you have a good reason to have a switch in the middle.

Have you installed the 82579 driver in ESXi? If not: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1607992

dLockers

No. I'm using pass through. It is undetected in both 32and 64 bit.

I will run a new cable.

thermo

If you look at the dmesg output, you'll see that the nic is detected but fails with an error along the lines of 'Device attach failed error 6'. The 82579 (LM?) doesn't play well with passthrough.
You need a second nic or a switch which does vlans.

dLockers

@thermo:

If you look at the dmesg output, you'll see that the nic is detected but fails with an error along the lines of 'Device attach failed error 6'. The 82579 (LM?) doesn't play well with passthrough.
You need a second nic or a switch which does vlans.

Thanks buddy.

Do you know if this is a passthrough problem, or a driver issue?

thermo

I don't know is the honest answer, but at a guess I'd say passthrough issue as it also doesn't work passed through to a Linux vm with quite recent kernel and drivers.

dLockers

Edit:

Max 9mbps using 82574L?

Any ideas?

dLockers

Just configured it through a vSwitch, and it's still only downloading at 9Mbps.

Thought i'd try the e1000 adapter for the LAN but same issue…

mrcola

@biggsy:

It would be better to run a new cable unless you have a good reason to have a switch in the middle.

Have you installed the 82579 driver in ESXi? If not: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1607992

Hi

How could you configure the ESXi to allow a bridged network between the physical nic and a virtual nic on the guest OS. I would like to let my visualized pfSense to connect to the internet using PPPoE

louis-m

you can do it with an L2 managed switch. my setup has:

on the switch:
port 23 = tagged vlan100 with vdsl modem connected
port 24 = tagged vlan100, vlan201, vlan202, vlan 203 which is connected to intel nic on esxi5 host
other ports on switch tagged as required

on esxi host:
virtual switch is set to allow all vlans (vlans are not set here)

on pfsense vm:
interfaces are set as vlan - vlan100 = wan, vlan201 = lan1, vlan202 = lan2, vlan203 = lan3
wan interface is pppoe

although i haven't tried it, i would imagine if i wanted a multiwan, it would be as simple as adding another vlan eg vlan101 to port 22 & 24 of the switch and to pfsense and then set the desired routing.