Virtual Network Adapter Issue

[RavageVJS2D]

Good morning everyone,

I am having an issue where I copy a virtual machine to another ESX host and when I boot it up, I am no longer able to chang my network device status to connected. It kicks back each time.

I've also upgraded vm tools on the virtual machine and when I check NIC 1 to connect through vm tools and select apply, it disappears and won't connect.

This is an issue  because I'm trying to have an ESX box located outside of my production environment that is holding a copy of a production vm that I can boot up in case of a failure on the original vm.

In my production environment I am utilizing vshield zones, but that should not affect the vm once it is moved outside. Should it?

Does anyone have any ideas as to why the nic would not start up? Also, any troubleshooting or suggestions on how to fix this?

Thanks,

- DRM

[krishnaprasad]

If i understood the scenario correctly, you have copied a VM from one ESX Server to another server. then the Network is not available  for the VM when it's booted on the second ESX Server. Is that understanding correct?

If yes, probably you can check if the VM brought up in the second Server is connected to the correct vSwitch and VM NEtwork portgroup by editing the VM Settings. Also see if the 'connected' option is checked in VM Network Settings

[RavageVJS2D]

You are correct.

The original ESX server is part of a vsphere datacenter and has a vshield agent isntalled on it and the virtual machine is connected to the "Production Network"

The second ESX server is not part of a vsphere datacenter and does not have a vshield agent installed on it and the virtual machine is also connected to the "VM Network" which I renamed to "Production Network" after reviewing your post. This made no difference in connectivity for me.

Both of the vswitches are able to get to the "Production Network" successfully as I have other virtual machines that exist on the ESX hosts.

When I select "Connected" on the second ESX server, the "Reconfigure virtual machine" status is "Completed" but when I check back on it, the box is unchecked and I still have no network connectivity.

Thanks,

- DRM

[krishnaprasad]

Probably you can remove the "Network Adapter 1"  as such from the VM and then create a new one using 'Add' option in Virtual Machine Edit settings.  After the particular operation is completed see if you can enable 'connected' checkbox.

Also i presume that the portgroup you have used for this VM is connected to a valid vSwitch and a vmnic.

[RavageVJS2D]

I did not remove the network adapter because I still wish try to resolve that issue.

I did, however, create a second network adapter which did connect to the network successfully. Thank you for the suggestion.

The main issue I have now is that my first network adapter had a static IP address which is needed when failing over. If I do it the way we just resolved this, I would have to log in and redo the networking side of the virtual machine with a new static, etc. That is inconvenient if I choose to do this on multiple virtual machines.

So the question now is, what went wrong with the first NIC? How can I fix that without reconnecting a second NIC?

Thanks for your help so far! Now for the greater challenge. Finding out what went wrong and resolving that!

- DRM

[krishnaprasad]

Probably because of the virtual MAC conflict? Check your first NIC ( VM's first NIC ) virtual MAC and see if it's set as 'automatic' or 'manual'... See the MAC from the guest OS as well. both should match.

[RavageVJS2D]

They are both set to Automatic, but....they are both exactly the same...? That seems weird, right? They are on completely different boxes.

I can't remember where I located it before, but is there a location that shows where the valid range of MACs are for that particular ESX installation?

Thanks,

- DRM

[bulletprooffool]

VM Macs, when assigned should fall in the range 00:50:56:xx:xx:xx

Duplicate Macs are never a good idea, but in your scneario, you should in theory use the VM in only one place at a time, so should be OK?

[RavageVJS2D]

I just got the issue resolved with the help of vmware support. Here it goes.

The original virtual machine was installed on an ESX host with vshield on it.

It was then copied to the secondary ESX host.

The VMX file has a line that states "ethernet0.filter0.name = "vshield-dvfilter-module""

This lines was removed and then the virtual machine was removed from inventory and then added back to inventory.

At this point, the virtual machine gained the correct network connectivity.

Apparently, the vshield "agent" line in the vmx file is not removed when the virtual machine is moved to an ESX server with no vshield agent located on it.

Thank you everyone for your insight and quick responses.

Hope this helps everyone,

- DRM

[krishnaprasad]

Thanks for sharing. That's new to me !