ESXi Host NIC down after boot of VM

[noaboa]

Hello,

I had some problems with my Virtual Environment crashing after I enabled HA. I got it up and running again. But now when I create a new VM and want to start it (after Windows booted up about a minute later) the NIC of the host the vm is running on looses connectivity. The ESXi is running if I check on it in the Datacenter or with ILO. It seems just the NIC is down. After a restart everything is fine and it works again until I boot that VM again.

I also ran the vm on a computer with vmware workstation 14 installed and also this pc lost network connectivity.

So my guess is there is some setting in the vm that causes this problem.

Has anybody an idea how I can figure out what is wrong?

Best

Noah

[Gidrakos]

Hey Noah,

I'd try these things, in this order, to troubleshoot:

1. Disable/Re-enable NIC in Windows on the VM
2. Remove/Re-add NIC in device manager on Windows
3. Completely delete (including drivers) for the NIC and re-add it.
4. Completely remove the NIC from the VM itself and add a new one.

If none of those work, you'll have to do some digging. Check the network traffic to see if the VM is flooding that NIC on the host, or if the Windows logs indicate any kind of oddity with networking.

[NathanosBlightc]

Hello

First of all you mentioned that "after I enabled HA" ... What is your cluster configuration exactly? HA Admission Control, DRS, EVC and so on...

Is your problem exist if your migrate your VM to another Host manually?

second you said "NIC of the host the vm is running on looses connectivity" Does your ESXi only a single NIC?

If there is more than one NIC, are they configured as a load-balanced structure?

But after all you said there is same problem in VMware Workstation, then I think it's not about your ESXi, HA, or etc...

Please check your Guest OS event viewer's Events (Specially System and Application ... Warnings and Errors)

And also VMware Workstation logs ....

[noaboa]

Hi Gidrakos,

I think you misunderstood me.

The NIC of the ESXi crashes and is down. I can't even connect anymore to the vm's on the esxi.

[noaboa]

Hello Amin,

It's my Testlab and I though I had HA enabled but and turned it on. Both ESXi in my Testlab crashed also the one which the vCenter was on. So I had a lot of trouble to just get it up and running again. I eventually managed and turned HA off emediatly. Somehow I was able to restore a backup of the vCenter Server. Also the Backup and AD Server Booted up and didn't crash the ESXi.

Now I'm running vCenter and AD Server on one host and crashing the other on in order to figure out why. It even looses network connectivity if I create a new VM and install it. I can still connect over ILO to it and open the remote console and everything is fine. I then restart it and then it works again but as soon as I start a VM it will crash the nic.

I have two nics connected one for the esxi and the other for ILO. No they are not configured as lb structure.

I could not see anything in the Guest OS event logs. What's strange, that also new VM's crash the nic of the ESXi.

I tested something else in my testlab with nvram copying so that BIOS Settings are applied to new machines and there I copied a nvram file from a machine which crashes the nic what I didn't realise at that moment. After I realised it I tried it with one of the machines which are running and it didn't crash the nic. So maybe it has something to do with the nvram file. Could that be?

I have to investigate a little bit more if it's really the nvram file but why would it then also happen with new machine?

Thanks

Best

Noah

[NathanosBlightc]

That NVRAM belongs to a VM from other host (without problem) or same host (beside the crashed VM)?

If you migrate the problematic VM is the problem still remains?

This time when that problem is happened do not restart anything, just check the following logs on your host:

• var/log/syslog.log
• /vmfs/volumes/datastore/virtual machine/vwmare.log
• /var/log/hostd.log
• /var/log/vmkwarning.log

[noaboa]

Yes I used the NVRAM file of another VM which doesn't crash the nic. I just tested this yesterday and the NVRAM File isn't the problem the nic still crashes. What I also forgot to mention, that I reinstalled both ESXi Servers. I guess my next try is to install a new vCenter but I'm trying to avoid that, because then I also have to reconfigure the whole vCenter and I'm not really sure if it's vCenter since it also happens localy on a machine with VMware Workstation...

Also it doesn't matter if an OS is installed or not. I created a new VM and didn't even bother installing an OS and it crashes the nic.

I can't migrate the vm or I don't want to risk it that it crashes my second ESXi where the AD Server and the vCenter is running. Otherwise I will have problems again gettin this ESXi up running with the AD Server and the vCenter.

I couldn't see anything helpfull for my eyes in the log and all of them weren't even from today. I attached screenshot of the log files.

What I also discovered, that the nic responds to like 3-5 ping request an then times out again and then says the host ist not available.

Best

Noah

[NathanosBlightc]

it also happens locally on a machine with VMware Workstation...
Also it doesn't matter if an OS is installed or not. I created a new VM and didn't even bother installing an OS and it crashes the nic.

As I understand, you mean if you install your VM in the workstation it crashed again?! even without an OS?!! Then is it happened on a New clean VM?! or you mean you converted that VM from ESXi to Workstation?

Please test this solution and give me the result:

Create a new VM without any VMDK (add no vDisk) in that host and then after creation of VM add your old VM's virtual disk to this new VM and start it up and check its activity and operation for 1 day ...

[noaboa]

No, I used a VM from the Datastore and started it on my local Computer with VMware Workstation. And this crashed the nic of the local Computer.

I created a new VM in the vCenter and didn't install an OS and it crashed the nic.

I'll test what you suggested and let you know. I guess you mean add disk of a VM which crashed the nic?

How will that help if new VM which I create crashes the nic.  Also it seems, that all my old VM's created before this problem are running without a problem. I restored them from a backup and just new ones are crashing...

Thanks

Noah