Windows 7 guest loses network connectivity

[Cannoli]

I've noticed that my Windows 7 VM's lose network connectivity from time to time and a reboot of the ESXi server is the only way they are able to get to resources outside of the ESXi host.  When the loss happens, I'm stil label to ping the IP address of the management interface on the ESXi host and ping other VM's on the ESXi host, but can not ping the default gateway or any other resources that don't live on the ESXi host.  Any ideas?

[AndreTheGiant]

Your enviroment is uptdate?

Have you verify your network infrastructure?

From where you ping the management interface?

[Cannoli]

Envirnment up to date? Do you mean Win7 and ESXi?  If so, yes.  All at the latest version and update.

When I ping, I ping from the Win7 guest.  I'm able to ping the IP address of the management interface of the ESXi host, which is the same server that the VM is running on.

The netwrok is a production network that hosts many workstations.  The ESXi servers are a new addition.  A reboot of the ESXi server allows the Win7 guest to ping the gateway amd beyone.  That seems to be the only solution as restarting the VM doesn't fix the problem.

[a_p_]

Often issues like this are related to the physical switch configuration. If the host is connected to a managed switch (e.g. Cisco) make sure the ports are configured for mode access (no port security) and spanning-tree portfast. On some Cisco switches a "macro desktop" is configured by default which limits the number of MAC addresses, which will be allowed on one switch port.

André

[Cannoli]

Spanning tree seems to be the issue.  I'll know more tomorrow.  Thank you!!

[Nikhil_Patwa]

I also encountered a similar issue with regards to network connectivity from VM to LAN and we found out some issues with our Cisco switch VLANs and Spanning tree.