Scripted install - vmnic0 selection

Hello,

I have setup an ESX server yesterday with the kickstart installation method. After the installation I noticed the installer did not pick the lowest pci id nic card for vmnic0 and it mixed the order of the assignments of vmnic0 through vmnic5 on both of the installed NIC.

Server is a IBM x3650, there is an onboard broadcom nic and we installed an Intel Quad port NIC as well. All 6 ports are provisionned as vlan trunks on the switches.

This is not really causing any problem other than making it harder to know where what is connected on a first look in VC, since one could expect the onboard nics to be vmnic0 and vmnic1.

Is it possible to specify the kickstart file which NIC to use during the setup for vmnic0 ?

Here is the output of lspci

1. lspci | grep -i ethernet

03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5708 1000Base-T (rev 12)

06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5708 1000Base-T (rev 12)

12:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Intel PRO/1000 PT Quad Port Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 06)

12:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Intel PRO/1000 PT Quad Port Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 06)

13:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Intel PRO/1000 PT Quad Port Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 06)

13:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Intel PRO/1000 PT Quad Port Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 06)

And this is the assignment of the NICs

1. esxcfg-nics -l

Name    PCI      Driver      Link Speed    Duplex MTU    Description

vmnic3  12:00.01 e1000       Up   1000Mbps Full   1500   Intel Corporation Intel PRO/1000 PT Quad Port Gigabit Ethernet Controller

vmnic4  13:00.00 e1000       Up   1000Mbps Full   1500   Intel Corporation Intel PRO/1000 PT Quad Port Gigabit Ethernet Controller

vmnic5  13:00.01 e1000       Up   1000Mbps Full   1500   Intel Corporation Intel PRO/1000 PT Quad Port Gigabit Ethernet Controller

vmnic0  12:00.00 e1000       Up   1000Mbps Full   1500   Intel Corporation Intel PRO/1000 PT Quad Port Gigabit Ethernet Controller

vmnic1  03:00.00 bnx2        Up   1000Mbps Full   1500   Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5708 1000Base-T

vmnic2  06:00.00 bnx2        Up   1000Mbps Full   1500   Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5708 1000Base-T