Intermitted network connection problem to Server 2008 VM running on vSphere Hypervisor ESXI V5.1

[G_Boardman]

Hi

I am very new to VMware and was forced to use it to get a critical server up and running after a hardware failure.

The problem I have is that the network connection between client computers and the server 2008 VM gets interrupted every 2 – 10 minutes. This causes the client accounting package to close and they have to reconnect when the connection is available again.

What I have done so far:

Updated Intel 1000 MT Driver then changed network adapter from E1000 to VMXNET

Added DisableTaskOffload Reg key to the Server 2008 registry as per a solution to this similar problem I found on google.

Below is a ping result from a client pc to the server when the connectivity drops.

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=255

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=255

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=255

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=255

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=255

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=255

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=255

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=255

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=255

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=255

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=255

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=255

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.16.12: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Any Help will be much appreciated as I have been trying to sort this out for 3 days now and cannot find the problem.

[RvdNieuwendijk]

Question moved from Community Website Help to VMware ESXi 5.

[spravtek]

Hi...

Can you provide more details about your setup?

Did you convert the VM with the issues from a physical server (regarding the hardware failure you mentioned)?

After the conversion, did you remove the old (hidden) network card? Sometimes that can give issues.

Did you doublecheck the routing, gateway, etc... ?

[Gerald_Boardman]

After another 5 hours I finally sorted the problem. It might have been the hidden NIC as Spravtek mentioned.

The TTL on the ping changed from 128 to 255 when it dropped connection and I found that usually happens when there is a duplicate IP on the network. But there definitely is no other client with the same IP. So I changed the IP of the server anyway and looks like the problem has been resolved.

[spravtek]

For the people interested, to show these hidden devices and remove them if needed you can use following method:

http://communities.vmware.com/people/habibalby/blog/2011/06/11/show-hidden-devices-after-p2v-for-win...

You can, after you've removed the old NIC, use the old IP again if needed.