I had one ESX3.5U1 server (HP DL380 G5) with 6 nics with vmnic0 connected to the vswitch with the service console.
Whe the original Update2 came out I applied it but after the reboot I found that vmnic0 had "disappeared" so I could not connectremotely to the service console. Tried several reboots but to no avail.
I connected one the other, unused, vmnics to the vswif0 and got back connectivity.
The original NIC showed up using lspci but ESX just couldn't/wouldn't see it even 'tho it was in the esx.conf file.
About a month later the revised update 2 came out so I installed that and hey-presto vmnic0 came back it was even attached back to vswif0.
Two weeks ago I upgraded another server (IBM x3650) from U1 to the latest U2 rebooted and I lost vmnic0 again. I did two identical servers at the some time and one lost the nic and the other was fine!.
Although the one server was an IBM and the other an HP both NICs involved were onboard Broadcoms in PCI slot 3.0.0
Regards
Bill
