Determining which storage or network driver is actively being used on ESXi host

Products

VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

On an ESXi host, when inbox and async drivers are present, they are both displayed as installed. However, only one is loaded.

This article provides steps to determine which driver is being used.

Symptoms:

Environment

VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0

Resolution

An inbox driver is one that is delivered and installed with ESXi software. Async drivers are third-party vendor drivers certified by VMware. They do not come bundled with ESXi software and are usually downloaded from VMware.

To determine which drivers are installed:

In ESXi 5.x, run this command:

esxcli software vib list | less
In ESXi 4.x, run this command:

esxupdate query --vib-view | less

Note: If you are looking for a specific driver type, you may use this command to search for a specific string of text within the driver name:

In ESXi 5.x:

esxcli software vib list | egrep String
In ESXi 4.x:

esxupdate query --vib-view | egrep String

Where string is the driver that you want to search.

For example, to search for an Emulex Light Pulse Fibre Channel driver (lpfc):

In ESXi 5.x:

esxcli software vib list | egrep lpfc
In ESXi 4.x:

esxupdate query --vib-view | egrep lpfc

The output for a system that has an inbox and async lpfc driver installed appears similar to:

deb_vmware-esx-drivers-scsi-lpfc820_400.8.2.1.30.1-58vmw.0.2.320137 installed 2010-11-02T21:27:49+00:00
cross_vmware-esx-drivers-scsi-lpfc820_400.8.2.1.79.28-1OEM installed 2011-02-02T14:30:18.756521+00:00

The inbox driver is not removed when an async driver is installed, which results in two storage lpfc drivers being installed. Multiple drivers can be installed but only one is loaded and used.

To determine which network or storage driver is actively being used, run the command:

esxcfg-info | less

The sample segment output for a storage lpfc driver appears similar to:

\==+Module :
|----Name...............................................lpfc820
|----File Name..........................................lpfc820.o
|----File Path........................................../usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/lpfc820.o
|----Alias Name.........................................
|----Module Id..........................................34
|----ReadOnly Load Address..............................0x0000418022d7c000
|----ReadOnly Length....................................671744
|----Writable Load Address..............................0x0000417fe370aec0
|----Writable Length....................................61440
|----Text Base Addr.....................................0x0000418022d7c000
|----Data Base Addr.....................................0x0000417fe370aec0
|----BSS Base Addr......................................0x0000417fe3718a40
|----Version............................................Version 0:8.2.1.79.28, Build: 00000, Interface: ddi_9_1 Built on: Oct 7 2010

The name and the version of the storage driver corresponds with the second driver in the output of the esxupdate query command.

Additional Information

For network drivers, run the command:

ethtool -i vmnicX

Or

To identify the vmnic # of the associated NIC, run the commands:

esxcfg-nics -l

esxcli network nic get -n vmnic#

Note: vmnic# is the number derived from the above command.

For more information, see Determining Network/Storage firmware and driver version in ESXi/ESX 4.x and 5.x (1027206).
Determining Network/Storage firmware and driver version in ESXi 4.x and later
ESXi ホストで実際に使用されているストレージドライバまたはネットワークドライバを確認する
确定正在 ESXi 主机上主动使用的存储或网络驱动程序