Vmotion & vmkping fails after upgrade 6.7 ->7.0.3g

[FDHTHR]

Hello,

Our prod is running on a 16 nodes Cisco B200 hardware farm with VCenter 7.0u3J.

Each ESX Network config is identical accross 1 nodes, beinig 3 vswitch per ESX Node. vswitch0 for esx mgmt, using vmnic0 and 1, vswitch 1 for vmotion using vmnic2 and 3, and vswitch3 for VM networking, on vmnic4 and 5.

After upgrading an ESXi 6.7 Host (running on Cisco B200 hardware) to 7.0.3G, other nodes from the cluster fail to ping upgraded host vmotion IP.

Investigating, I located the prob with one of the 2 nics of the VSwitch1, where the vmkernel vmk1 is configured on. Removing vmnic2, the pings and vmotion are back to normal. Adding the nic back resumes the issue.

Before upgrade, node was working perfectly and vmotion like a charm using both vmnic2 and 3.

I suspected ESXi to differently detect NICs in the server so I checked Cisco UCSM profiles (Hardware) to be sure about the network setting although unchanged since months, rebooted multiple times, no changes. I then compared esxcfg-nics -l output to verify correspondance between ESX vnics and NIC Mac addr and VLan assignation and all match as expected and as before the upgrade

I am clueless regarding that problem.

I also deleted vmkernel vmk1 dedicated to vmotion and recreated it. Same issue. Without vmnic2 in the vswitch1, it's ok. Adding vmnic2,problem is back.

Any idea ?

I upgraded from ESXi 6.7, Patch Release ESXi670-202111001 to ESXi 7.0 Update 3d (vmware Cisco image) and then to ESXi 7.0 Update 3g (vmware classic image)

Thanks!

Th

[Kinnison]

Hi,

It's just my thought, assuming you use a vSS object and a single VMkernel for vMotion operations how the two "network cards" are used within the corresponding portgroup, active/passive or active/active mode, I would avoid the latter method. Having "two network cards" available and "associated" with a vSS object dedicated to the purpose, very personal opinion (certainly there may be those who disagree), I would implement the so-called "multinic" vMotion which "guarantees" to use both.

However, in your place, I would exchange words with the technical support because their opinion has a very different meaning than the "forum remedies". Not that what you can find on the net is useless, quite the contrary, but when this refers to a production context, in my opinion, it's always better to "take it with a grain of salt".

Regards,
Ferdinando

[FDHTHR]

Hello,

Yes, goal is to have multinic in the vswitch as used with other 6.7 then migrate vmotion vswitch to distributed switch.

Will open case at vmware ...

have a great day and thanks for your words

Th

[Kinnison]

Hi,

I see, you could take a look here:
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2007467

Regards,
Ferdinando