f5 VE on ESXi: “The requested media for interface 1.1 is invalid.”

This article addresses the following error: “The requested media for interface 1.1 is invalid” when using the f5 virtual edition on ESXi.

Once possible reason for this error is mentioned under “Known Issues” in the release notes for 11.x e.g. : http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/products/big-ip_ltm/releasenotes/product/relnote-ve-11-4-0.print.html

The entry reads as follows:

ID 352856 “If an SCF is migrated between BIG-IP VE running on non-similar hypervisor software, a validation error may prevent configuration loading. Loading the configuration … BIGpipe interface creation error: 01070318:3: “”The requested media for interface 1.1 is invalid.”” When this condition is encountered on BIG-IP Virtual Edition, configuration may be fixed for import by removing the entire line that contains “”media fixed”” statements for each interface.”

If however, like me, you cannot find the “media fixed” anywhere in your bigip_base.conf file then it is most likely to be an issue with the vmxnet3 network adapters that are deployed by default.

My management adapter, also vmxnet3, came up fine but the other 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 interfaces remained uninitialised and any attempts to edit just threw the error above.

My solution was to change the adapter types in the .vmx file for the virtual machine:

1. Shut down the machine2. SSH / console into your ESXi host and change directory to /vmfs/volumes/<datastore_name>/<vm_directory>

 

 

 

 

 

3. Use the “vi” command to edit the <your_vm>.vmx file and change the “vmxnet3” entries to “e1000.” Note: you can generally leave the first interface (management) as vmxnet3.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Save the file and start up your machine – you should now be able to initialise and edit your interfaces under “Network” -> “Interfaces”

Job done, let me know if this works / doesn’t work for you!