New Broadcom bnx2x Nic Driver released but its 1.54v2, not 1.60
VMware has released a new Broadcom bnx2x driver today and made it available through Update Manager.
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1029394
The update looks like it fixes the critical issues referenced in my previous post.
What is very strange though is the 4.1 bundled version number was:
1.54.1.v41.1-1vmw
The new version number is:
1.54.1.v41.1-2vmw
See the difference, a small little 2. So this looks like a very minor release. What is the 1.60 driver all about then?
Does this minor 1.54-2 release fix the issues with the built in driver but not fix SmartLink / DDC. Does the 1.60 driver fix the issues with the built-in driver or just fix SmartLink / DDC?
I haven’t been able to find any more information on what the 1.60 driver fixes or breaks as there doesn’t seem to be any published information about it.
I’m very happy these drivers are now being released through Update Manager which is the easiest deployment method although you can still use PowerCLI to deploy them but why release 1.60 and then release 1.54-2 later?
I’ve said it before: Come on everyone…VMware, Broadcom, HP need to get together and sort this out!
Check your Events tab for any ESXi host running the 1.60 driver. We had a ton of weird disconnect/reconnect errors showing up in the logs and opened a support ticket for it. We’ve been advised that VMWare is investigating problems wih the 1.60 driver and to roll back to the new 1.54 release found in the ESX410-201011401-BG patch, which is Update Manager friendly.