ethernet0.pciSlotNumber silently resets

[billoneil]

How do you set ethernet0.pciSlotNumber? Every time I try to set it back to 33 from 192 it resets itself back to 192. (I had removed and replaced the NIC card to change it from E1000E to VMXNET3.)

[TheBobkin]

Hello,

Are you changing this by editing the .vmx file or some other method?

Is the VM powered on while you are attempting this?

If yes, have you attempted configuring this with the VM off?

Bob

[dariusd · Accepted solution]

If I remember correctly, slot 33 is a PCI slot and slot 192 is a PCIe slot.

If we're powering on a VM and find that a PCI[e] device is in the wrong slot type, it will be silently moved to an appropriate slot.  There is no way to suppress that behavior.

Cheers,

--

Darius

[billoneil]

Essentially the original E1001 adapter was named ens33 and converting it to VMXNET3 changed the name to ens192.

Is VMXNET3 always PCIe then?

[TheBobkin]

Hello,

Yes, VMXNET3 is a PCI Express device.

Good one to know that behaviour Darius, never came across that before.

Bob

[continuum]

Pcislot 33 is an invalid  selection for a vmxnet3 card.
Pcislot 33 is suitable for usb, soundcard or a vmxnet-nic or e1000-nic.
e1000e and vmxnet3 require a pci-e slot and those use

160 (reserve this for scsi0 ! )

192

224

256

or

1184

1216

1248 .... (next slot = current slot + 32 )

To switch from

ethernet*.virtualDev = "vmxnet3"

to

ethernet*.virtualDev = "e1000e"
just rewrite that one parameter and leave everything else as is.
Be careful - resetting PCIslots may trigger activation-issues and may produce ghost network settings in your guest.