Lost nic after Update2

[BStirling]

We have a server with two on-board Broadcom NICs and two Intel NICs. The on-board NICs were vmnic0 and vmnic1. vmnic0 was linked to vSwitch0 which was where the primary Service Console was configured.

After upgrading to Update 2 (via esxupdate) rebooted the server only to find vSwitch0 had no attached NICs and no sign of vmnic0.

If I use lspci I can see the NIC:

03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5708 1000Base-T (rev 12)

04:00.0 PCI bridge: ServerWorks: Unknown device 0103 (rev c3)

05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5708 1000Base-T (rev 12)

But if I use esxcfg-nics -l vmnic0 does not show.

Name PCI Driver Link Speed Duplex MTU Description

vmnic3 13:00.01 e1000 Down 0Mbps Half 1500 Intel Corporation 82571EB Gigabit Ethernet Controller

vmnic1 05:00.00 bnx2 Up 1000Mbps Full 1500 Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5708 1000Base-T

vmnic2 13:00.00 e1000 Down 0Mbps Half 1500 Intel Corporation 82571EB Gigabit Ethernet Controller

esxcfg-info also shows the NIC (it is in esx.conf)

\==+PCI Device :

|----Bus.............................................0x03

|----Slot............................................0x00

|----Function........................................0x00

|----Vendor Id.......................................0x14e4

|----Device Id.......................................0x164c

|----Sub-Vendor Id...................................0x103c

|----Sub-Device Id...................................0x7038

|----Vendor Name.....................................Broadcom Corporation

|----Device Name.....................................Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5708 1000Base-T

|----Device Class....................................512

|----PIC Line........................................5

|----Service Console IRQ.............................16

|----Vector..........................................121

|----PCI Pin.........................................0

|----Spawned Bus.....................................0

|----Flags...........................................1

|----Module Id.......................................2

|----Chassis.........................................0

|----Physical Slot...................................255

|----VmKernel Device Name............................vmnic0

|----Slot Description................................

Using esxcfg-vswitch -l shows no Uplinks on vSwitch0

Switch Name Num Ports Used Ports Configured Ports MTU Uplinks

vSwitch0 64 2 64 1500

PortGroup Name VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks

192.168.2.0 Switch 0 0

Service Console 0 1

Switch Name Num Ports Used Ports Configured Ports MTU Uplinks

vSwitch1 64 5 64 1500 vmnic1

PortGroup Name VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks

iSCSI Switch 0 0 vmnic1

iSCSI Service Console0 1 vmnic1

iSCSI VMkernel 0 1 vmnic1

If I try to link vmnic0 to vSwitch0 using "esxcfg-vswitch --link=vmnic0 vSwitch0" I get an error (probably not surprisingly)

Unable to Add Uplink vmnic0. Not a valid pnic: vmnic0

Failed to add uplink: vmnic0 to vswitch: vSwitch0, Error: Not a valid pnic: vmnic0

Any suggestions?

Regards

Bill

[wila]

Sounds like a case where the nics have been reordered.

You can probably fix this in the VIC by by removing the problematic service console and recreate it in the VIC

Alternatively it should be possible to try and recreate your vmnic0 using the esxcfg-vswif -a command.

You first might want to have a look at what your server sees now by executing:

esxcfg-vswif -l

and if that works but doesn't list vmnic0 try something like:

esxcfg-vswif --add --ip=10.0.0.1 --netmask=255.255.255.0 vswif_name

The links below might also help a bit;

--

Wil

[BStirling]

Don't think it is a case of re-ordered NICs as the NICS are still showing in the same PCI slots as they originally were (as listed by lspci). It seems to be that ESX is only seeing three 3 and not 4 nics. There are network cables attached to each nic and there is link lights on the "missing" nic

I have another SC port (attached to another vmnic) which I can use to access the service console

The esx.conf file contains an entry for vmnic0 and it seems to have the correct PCI info.

Regards

Bill

[christianZ]

Have you tried to reboot the esx host? Simple but sometimes effective.

[BStirling]

Yes - I have rebooted it a couple of times and updated all the firmware as well - just in case.