VMware Tools 13.0.0 Upgrade May Wipe Static IP Config - Heads-Up for Windows Admins!

[Saibal Chatterjee]

Hey folks,

We recently ran into an issue while upgrading VMware Tools to version 13.0.0 on Windows Server VMs.

After the upgrade, we noticed:

❌ Static IPs disappeared, and VMs defaulted to DHCP - resulting in network drops and service disruptions.

If you're managing Windows servers with static addressing, planned properly.

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🔍 Why Does This Happen?

When VMware Tools updates, it often replaces the virtual NIC driver (like VMXNET3).
Windows detects this as a new network adapter, and:

• The original NIC is hidden
• Static IP is no longer bound to the new NIC
• The VM falls back to DHCP or ends up with no IP

✅ What You Can Do to Prevent It

Here's the quick checklist we follow now:

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🔹 1. Record Static IP Details

Before upgrading, export or note down:

• IP, Gateway, DNS
• NIC names

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🔹 2. Avoid NIC Driver Upgrade (If Possible)

Use custom install during VMware Tools upgrade.
Uncheck NIC driver updates unless required.

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🔹 3. Clean Up Old Adapters

After upgrade, go to Device Manager
→ Enable View > Show Hidden Devices
→ Remove any ghost/hidden NICs

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🔹 4. Test First in Staging

Never update directly in production. We always test on low-impact VMs first.

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Pro Tip:

Take a snapshot before the upgrade - it's a lifesaver for quick rollback.

[ninjabrum]

That used to happen many years ago.  I haven't seen it in a long time.  We just updated ~2000 Windows endpoints without issues going from 12.5.2 to 13.0.0.  Would be interesting to know the guestOS version and previous tools version.  Have you opened a support ticket to see what the cause is?

[Alexandru Capras]

I came across this a few months ago but can't recall the exact VMware Tools version - I think it was 12.x something. The workaround involved scheduling two reboots for the VMware Tools upgrade, which were set in the same window as the Windows security patching.

I'll dig into this a bit more, try to remember the exact steps, and get back to this thread with the details.

[Alexandru Capras]

...memory isn't always reliable. However, I promised to come back with details. The two reboots I mentioned earlier were actually done to ensure VMware Tools were installed properly. They were scheduled at the same time as the Windows security patching, and sometimes pending reboots would block the VMware Tools installation.

And as a workaround for the issue with static IPs disappearing, we had a local account ready for console access via vCenter, and we ran a script beforehand that exported all VMs' IP configurations.

[Julll]

Hello,

This happened to a customer in june with one of their VM, they updated to v12.5.2, on an old VM with OS "CentOS 4/5/6 (64 bits)" that had open-vmtools installed. maybe there's a clue there(?)

[Siva Sankar Gangineni]

Hi All, have you check the STS certificates?

Regards,
Siva G