I ran into a very strange issue today when I went to redeploy an old Proliant DL380 G5. The first thing I did was use the most current service pack DVD to update the firmware. The most current is from 2/2014 and has the number 2013.02.0. After installing ESXi 5.1 U1 I noticed that I was only showing 4 NICs and not the 6 I started with.
The two embedded NICs were missing!!
After a quick google search or twelve I stumbled upon an HP discussion with exactly the same problem that I was having. I followed the instructions from the HP discussion and here is what it took to fix (Most of this is copied from user hase3d’s post).
1. Download all necessary tools
– download FreeDOS
– download XDIAG.exe
– download bc08c740.bin
– read all information in setup.txt
2. Prepare the FreeDOS.iso
-After downloading open the iso with a tool like UltraISO. I used Magic ISO.
-Add the XDIAG.exe and the bc08c740.bin to the iso – I these files to the root so that I wouldn’t need to add a path later.
-Save the iso with a new name.
-Burn it or mount it with ilo.
3. Boot from FreeDOS
-Select Install to harddisk
-Press 1
-Select your language and press Enter
-Press ESC
-Select run FreeDOS from CD-ROM
4. Mine booted to f:\freedos. Do a cd\ to get back to the root of f:
5. Run xdiag in engineering mode by typing xdiag -b06eng
6. type device 1
7. nvm fill 0 0x600 0
8. nvm upgrade -bc bc08c740.bin
9. nvm cfg
-Press q
-Type default
-Press q again
-Type 16=10 wich sets the BAR size to 32
-Press q for the third time
-Type save and then exit out to the main menu
10. Type device 2 and repeat steps 7-9, run the command 1=00:00:18:xx:xx:xx <— change the last digit for different mac on device 2.
I did not do anything else from the setup.txt file.
I powered down the host and then when I rebooted I had 6 NICs again!