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vSphere or VMware ESX 4.0 introduced a number of interesting features, among which the possibility to upgrade your virtual hardware to version 7 from version 4 (that was default in previous ESX 3.x world).

This upgrade, achieved right clicking on the virtual machine in VI Client and select “Upgrade Virtual Hardware”, will inject cool steroids in your virtual machine (but makes it also not backward compatible with VI 3.x anymore).

A positive side effect of such steroids is the ability to increase the number of NICs in your VM as shown below.

This is what happens trying to add a 5th NIC on StoneGate Firewall Virtual Appliance still at HW version 4:

When upgraded to version 7, here’s how the new VM looks like:

…and if you look to Adapter Type on the right, you’ll notice that new NIC can be configured as Intel E1000, one of the best drivers for StoneGate engines.

Powering on the engine, here’s the NIC list as recognized by StoneGate Firewall Virtual Appliance:

StoneGate Virtual Appliance. Network Security. On Steroids

written by RoarinPenguin - 1,594 views \\ tags: ESX 4, stonegate, virtual appliance, Virtualization, vsphere