ESX Server loses network connectivity

[virtualmrookie]

Hi,

I recently set up a new ESX server(3.5) and ported a few virtual machines from our existing ESX(3.5) setup to the new one. The new ESX server unfortunately keeps losing network connectivity(remote access, VI Client and pinging the machine do not work). On losing connectivity,when I use the console I can ping the virtual machines on the server but I cant ping outside the server. A reboot of the ESX server solves the problem. The VI as well as the remote access works fine after a reboot I have now had to however reboot it 4 times over the last 24 hours and I was wondering if there is an alternative solution to the problem.

There is only a single vSwitch being used on the ESX server. It initially had an uplink through vmnic0 only.It has a couple of portgroups apart from the Service Console. All the portgroups have the vmnic0 uplink. I also tried adding vmnic1 as an uplink but the problem persists. vswif0 has an internal address which I can pin ping when the network connectivity is up. Could someone suggest what the problem could be and/or give me pointers to debugging the problem

Thanks

Vin

[weinstein5]

Have you fixed the speed and duplex of vmnic0?

[virtualmrookie]

No, I am using default values and have not changed the values of speed and/or duplex. Could you tell me what these values need to be set to?

[weinstein5]

there are two ways to do this - the easiest is to use the VI Client - check out page 43 in the Server COnfiguration Guide -

[williamarrata · Accepted solution]

Make sure both your switch and NICS are statically set to a speed. 100/Full 1000/full and so on.

Hope that helped.

[Gerrit_Lehr]

I once had a similar problem and is was a silly error: duplicate IP address.

Kind Regards,

Gerrit Lehr

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[virtualmrookie]

Hi,

Problem got solved!! Thank you everyone for all the help! It was a network configuration problem actually rather than an ESX problem. I had made a mistake in bridging a vswitch to itself. STP was not enabled, hence the network was being flooded. This resulted in a lose of connectivity. Hence, ended up shooting myself in the foot. Thanks in any case!!