I haven't tried this yet, but I am going to guess you need to update the GRUB configuration to have the correct MAC1 address to match the ESXI configuration.
What CPU do you have on this? I am sure it is going to make the difference. I tried to setup a machine exactly like that, but wouldn't boot because of the processor.
I have actually gotten the NIC to show up on my switch, but it didn't get an IP address. To get it to show up I switched from BIOS to EFI in the VMWare loader. I am wondering if I am seeing the NIC register because of the way it is handled with EFI.
Unable to discover it and not showing on my network. I have tried both the baremetal and VMware options from the Grub loader.
Processor: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2665 0 @ 2.40GHz
ESXI Version: 6.7
Host Config:
SATA Controller
e1000e Network Card
50mb boot (SATA0)
16gb test drive (SATA1)
I attempted to set the mac address in the GRUB loader with the set command to match the interface. That did not work. I am willing to try different options if people have suggestions.