how to disable network direct-path I/O / passthrough on ESXi 6.5

[NLNicky]

In the virtual machine information screen, for the installed network adapter, it says pass-through (direct-path I/O) : yes. But, in the edit screen, there is no mention of this option. I am having trouble connecting to things on the network with this VM and want to try disabling direct-path I/O. Is there a way to do that?

I have seen many articles saying to uncheck the box for it, but there is no box. The user interface I see (web based configuration directly to ESXi (no vCenter)) does not match what other articles are saying. And then most articles talk about PCI devices or something. I don't see what those are saying either. The VM is powered off.

[GayathriS]

Hi

Could you please check below post which helps by using powercli

VMware PowerCLI Forum - VMware {code}

Please mark this answer as correct and helpfull if this helps you.

regards

Gayathri

[NLNicky]

I ended up having to install vCenter and then there was an option to disable direct-path I/O. I didn't get around to trying the Powercli command, assuming one can do that without vCenter anyway.

[donbuckleymegam]

I just ran into this on esxi 6.7u2 standalone free license.

i manually edited the vmx file.

Will add details later but the steps were-

enable ssh

power down VM

unregister the VM

login to ssh

navigate into the vm folder

vi <vmname>.vmx

find the uptCompatibility value for the virtual nic and set it to false

Save & exit vi

re-register VM

making any change to the network adapter may cause the setting to revert back to true, so do this when you don’t expect any more changes.