VM Networking problems on Windows 2012

[Ashom]

So I'm running 4 hosts with ESXi 5.1 U3 Enterprise Plus and vCenter 5.1 on Windows 2012 R2 running as a VM.  I've also configured my hosts using vSphere Distributed Switch.  Lately, whenever I build a new Windows 2012 R2 server from a patched template I maintain, the network connectivity seems to fail.  Specifically, I'm unable to get traffic through although all indications show that everything is configured properly.  The NIC shows connected within Windows, the Device Status > Connected check box is selected within Edit Settings and the link shows up under the appropriate switch/port group within Home > Inventory > Networking.  And here's the really strange part.  Pinging the host address, 127.0.0.1 shows that the host is up but pinging with the assigned IP address shows "Destination host unreachable".  I've also tried removing and re-adding the NIC within Edit Settings, adding the NIC as both an E1000E and as a VMXNET3 adapter (with the same IP), migrating the VM to a new host and trying multiple reboots.  Finally, I've shutdown the Windows Firewall service and configured it is such a way that it's unable to start (set it to start with a disabled user account).

I'm missing something here and I'm not sure is it's a vmware issue or a windows issue.  Any help you can provide would the greatly appreciated.

[Anjani_Kumar]

We were also facing the same issue after upgrading our 2K12 template where firewall get enabled for the NIC which was been used for the Network communication.

Later we modified the template for the specific settings (Disabling firewall) and now its fixed. i will suggest you the same else each vm will comes up with the same issue you will spin from the template.

[Ashom]

Unfortunately, that didn't fix my problem.  I went back to my template and disabled the firewall service by having it use the guest user account, which is disabled, thus preventing the service from overriding the "Disabled" setting under services.  I then spun off a new VM from the template and still have the same problem.

[mjha]

Have you tried searching for any Microsoft hotfix available or not which can deal with this problem?

[Ashom]

Not yet.  My next step is to build a new system fresh from the install ISO and see if the problem still exists.  If it does work, I'll apply patches until it breaks.