Realtek nics on vmware exsi 6.7

This guide will help you install the drivers for Realtek 8168/8111/8411/8118 based NICs on exsi 6.7

Realtek 8168/8111/8411/8118 based NICs on Vmware EXSI 6.7


This guide will help you install the drivers for Realtek 8168/8111/8411/8118 based NICs so you can use those network cards on vmware exsi 6.7 hosts.

Googling you may have found the net51-drivers package, or even tried it and had it fail, but that is out of date for esxi 6.7.

Use the following:


Online installation

If your host is already installed and has a direct Internet connection then you can install it from an ESXi shell by running the following commands:

esxcli software acceptance set -level=CommunitySupported

esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e true -r httpClient

esxcli software vib install -n net55-r8168 -d http://vibsdepot.v-front.de
esxcli software vib install -n net55-r8169 -d http://vibsdepot.v-front.de
esxcli software vib install -n net55-sky2 -d http://vibsdepot.v-front.de

Offline installation

If you do not have network connectivity then you can use the available offline bundles from the above links.

  1. unzip the bundle on your computer.

  2. move/copy the .vib file to any location on the esxi. (for example /tmp)

  3. run the esxcli command with complete path to the vib file.

esxcli software vib install -v /tmp/xxxxxxxxxxx.vib
  1. If a reboot is required, reboot the esxi host.
updatedupdated2023-11-212023-11-21
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