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geebie
Contributor
Contributor

ESXi 5.1 - netwrk shows as up but no traffic seen

Hi

I have installed ESXi 5.1 on a laptop in my lab. it was previously running 5.0 without issue. IP address could be recieved from a DHCP server or via static. Installed ESXi 5.1 and no communication anymore. The switch and ESXi  command - excfg-nics -l - shows the nic is connected and up. Remove the cable and the nic shows as down. I have rebuilt as 5.0 to confirm it all works then back to 5.1 I can set a static IP but it cant be seen from the outside and it cant ping outside. Has anyone seen this issue?

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LMerryman
Contributor
Contributor

Here it is the end of February and this issue in 5.1.0 has yet to be resolved? I'm finding the same issue with the Realtek 8111E NIC embedded onto the motherboard. After looking at the many log files and entries generated I believe there may be a of hint of reason for this NIC not functioning. In the VMkernal logs it shows at installation time it could not determine the correct hardware and chose to use the 8111B drivers. There may be something significantly different with this driver than the E version of chip.

I have installed a much older Realtek NIC in one of the PCI slots and everything is working fine, excluding the 8111E NIC.

It appears I have no other choice but to try the 5.0.0 version and see where I can get with getting this MOBO up with the onboard NIC.

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jukka
Contributor
Contributor

I have the same problem, my motherboard is Asus P8Z77-V LE Plus, with Realtek 8111F. I'm getting an IP address in the boot, but not if I restart management connection.

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LMerryman
Contributor
Contributor

What surprises me are people saying this 8111 (equivalent to the 8168) is a cheap controller, but yet it's on a $300+ motherboard which I don't consider being cheap. The cheap $10 Realtek 8169 I dropped into the PCI slot works just fine. I've tried installing the 5.0.0 drivers as I heard others say it worked for them, but alas it did not for me. Whether the onboard 8111 controller works or not seems to be dependant on the MOBO mfg and the model.

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LMerryman
Contributor
Contributor

I was able to find a simple solution to my 8168/8111 delima purely by accident.I installed an LSI 9240-4i RAID controller and while it was recognized by the BIOS and VMware I had difficulty getting it to initialize. The RAID card is not the topic of dicussion, but during this diag procedure I found my Intel and the Realtek 8169 NIC I installed stopped working too.I tried everything I could think of until I just gave up and decided to choose the reset system configuration choice on the bottom of the menu.

Once I reset config and allowed the system to rediscover system hardware all NIC's came up and running, even the 8168. I scratched my head in wonderment and gift given, but curious as to why so I tried to break it again to figure out what happened and can't seem to break it. Bottom line, once your VMware software is installed and you have a 8168 either on your MOBO (motherboard) or an add-in card, try reseting as I did and see if everything comes online for you. You won't lose your VM files on the drive, but you will need to setup the virtual machines again. Good luck.

emeski
Contributor
Contributor

All, Do you have windows installed on this host? In my case r8168 will stop working only if i boot windows accidentally, and then restart host and boot ESXi. If i shutdown host first and then boot to vmware, everything is fine. Basically same behavior described by jackhosy.

EM

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TechSpot
Contributor
Contributor

Thank for the wise words.  I just installed 5.1.o on a Dell XPS 8500.  I couldn't get the nic to work and found your post and it works as it should.  I can now ping my ESXI host.  I tried to install 5.5 error message no network card detected.

So now I'm wondering how long it will stay running and if I set the nic to static if it will stay working.  I will keep you posted.  If it don't stay working when I set it to static I will reset again and update.  Cheers

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TechSpot
Contributor
Contributor

I reset my Dell XPS 8500 ESX 5.1 still working. I noticed a couple of request timed out. Set NIC to Static as well working.  Thanks again

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NickCoolNG
Contributor
Contributor

I followed your way and it worked too! That's an interesting phenomenon..

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