Users Guide

Driver installation

Dell HBA cards require software drivers to operate with the supported operating systems.

This chapter contains the procedures for installing the drivers for the Dell HBA controllers.

NOTE: The drivers for the Dell HBA controller for VMware ESXi is packaged within the VMware ESXi ISO image downloaded

from the Dell support site. For more information, see the VMware documentation at Dell.com/virtualizationsolutions.

Two methods for installing a driver discussed in this chapter are:

• Installing a driver during operating system installation: Use this method if you are performing a new installation of the operating

system and want to include the drivers.

• Updating existing drivers: Use this method if the operating system and the Dell HBA controller is already installed, and you want to

update to the latest drivers.

NOTE: It is recommended that you update existing operating system drivers after installation. Native driver support is available

for Windows 2016, Windows 2012 R2, Windows 2012, and other supported Windows operating systems.

Topics:

• Creating the device driver media

• Windows driver installation

• Linux driver installation

Creating the device driver media

Use one of the following two methods to create the device driver media:

1 Downloading drivers from the Dell support website.

2 Downloading drivers from the Dell Systems Service and Diagnostic Tools Media .

Downloading drivers from the Dell support website

To download drivers from the Dell Support website:

1 Go to Dell.com/support.

2 Enter the service tag of your system in the Choose by Service Tag to get started eld or select Choose from a list of all Dell

products.

3 Select System Type, Operating System, and Category from the drop-down list.

The drivers that are applicable to your selection are displayed.

4 Download the drivers that you require to a USB drive, CD, or DVD.

5 During the operating system installation, use the media that you created with the Load Driver option to load mass storage drivers. For

more information about reinstalling the operating system, see the relevant section for your operating system later in this guide.

26 Driver installation