After migration to ESXi 8.0 - lost network connection on Guest VM's

[RoyOtten]

Hi, 

I am in the process of migrating our virtual machines from our old ESXi 6.0 environment to our new ESXi 8.0 environment.
Because the vmxnet3 has the better performance, I am setting all network adapters to the vmxnet3.

I have migrated now about 15 virtual machines, of which 10 have a windows server 2019 guest OS, and about 5 have an ubuntu guest OS.
Out of 15 servers about 13 of them gave me the same problems.

After booting up the migrated virtual machine, I opt to reinstall vmware tools, to make sure I have the proper drivers for the network card.
Each time I end up with a situation where the network connection is not working.
The network adapter is visible, but does not work, as in: no network connection is possible.
I can check the IP settings, they are all good, just as you would expect.

The workaround that I now have found, that works most of the time... is to add a second network adapter to the virtual machine.
After adding a second adapter, the first adapter starts working.
After the first adapter is working, I can delete the second adapter again. 
The first adapter keeps on working.
Unless... you reboot. Then the same thing happens again. This creates a very unstable environment.
This is working like this for windows guest OS servers.

The linux guest OS servers behave a bit different.
Similar to above, adding a second network adapter fixes the problem, but in this case I cannot remove the second adapter.
As soon as I do that, it breaks immediately.

the VMware tools version that I am using on the windows guest OS, is version 12.2.5.21855600

 

Does anyone have an idea how I can fix this?

Thank you

[a_p_]

That's a sange one.

How did you configure the virtual network (vSwitches/Portgroups), and did you already double-check that the ESXi hosts's uplink ports on the physical switch(es) are configured properly?

André

[RoyOtten]

I have two Physical NIC uplinks combined in a standard vSwitch.

vmnic1, 1000mbps, Full
vmnic12 1000mbps, Full

1 portgroup is connected to this vSwitch and has vlan id 0.
settings in the portgroup are inherited from vSwitch

As far as I can tell the ports on the physical switch that it is connected to are configured properly.
Nothing strange, pretty straightforward standard port settings.

Are there any specific settings I should check?

So now I have added a second adapter but disconnected, and then it works.

 

[Kinnison]

Hello,

One question, did you set "VMXNET3" as the network adapter before or after the migration and did you check that there are no "hidden" Ethernet network adapters among the devices of your "Windows VM"?

Regards,
Ferdinando

[RoyOtten]

Hi, 

some VM's had the network adapter set to VMXNET3 already before the migration.

For some I have changed it during the migration.

There are no hidden network adapters present in Windows device management.

Best regards,

Roy

 

[Kinnison]

Hello,

I understand, if I'm honest, I haven't used anything from the 6.x product line for a long time, but in my opinion based on what you say there isn't much to go on to try to help you solve the problem. For example, if you could share the LOGs and/or configuration file of one of the problematic VMs it could be of greater use, then you could always consider, involving technical support.

Regards,
Ferdinando

[Pileum_scoth]

I'm seeing this same issue.  I've upgraded compatibility to 8.0 with no progress.  I've also deleted all the nics on the VM and tried each type vmnet3 & E1000.  This is a real pain to find out this issue during an upgrade.  I'm going to open a ticket and see if I get any help to move forward.