Update NIC driver on XenServer5.0 and 5.5

The way to update NIC driver would be straight or difficult based on what you are trying to do

First confirm the NIC model

Then check the driver version

Once these two thing are confirmed then download the latest driver from the vendor site .

Compiling the file

o Download the latest Broadcom driver from www.broadcom.com and then the XenServer DDK (this is specific to the version of XenServer you are running) from MyCitrix. Note to download the DDK you will need to login.

o After downloading the DDK ISO expand it using 7-Zip then import the appliance using XenCentre. This will import the DDK VM, all you need to do is ensure that you have a DHCP server running on the network you map the VM to.

o Expand the ZIP file downloaded from Broadcom and upload the contents using WinSCP to /root

o Logon to the XenServer console then expand the tar.gz file, for example tar -xzvf <tar file name>

o Traverse the resulting directory structure, for example cd netxtreme2-5.2.55/bnx2-2.0.8e/src

o Whilst in the src directory run make clean then make build

Copying the driver to the XenServer

o Using WinSCP copy the bnx2.ko file to your PC.

o Finally connect to each XenServer using WinSCP and switch to /lib/modules/<<<2.6xen>>>/kernel/drivers/net

o Rename the existing bnx2.ko to bnx2.ko.old

o Drag and drop the bnx2.ko file on your PC to /lib/modules/<<<2.6xen>>>/kernel/drivers/net

o From the XenServer console switch to /lib/modules/<<<2.6xen>>>/kernel/drivers/net and run chmod 0744 bnx2.ko

o Migrate any VMs to other hosts then reboot!

Once host is rebooted the version of driver will change . There are other tweaking which is suggested by blog

This process has to be repeated for all the four nic. This needs to be done on pool master. Above setting is recommended on Broadcom NIC.

Thanks to my fellow blogger and my college Raj