I have a problem I have been trying to wrap my head around. I would like to run an ntop monitoring machine inside of my host. The NIC used for monitoring should only be accessible from the ntop VM, and the OS should be able to set that NIC to promisc mode in order to sniff all traffic properly. The other NIC will be used normally, for machine access and management. I have attached a picture showing what I have now. Currently, when I boot the ntop OS, both NICs will receive an address via DHCP (until I would be able to figure out which nic is which, by ping testing, then I could edit /etc/networking/interfaces) when I start a ping test to both of the virtual nics, it seems they are actually both connecting to either vmnic0 or vmnic1. I have restared the esxi host a few times, and it seems random so far as to which physical NIC the OS binds to. I verified that by starting a ping test to both of the IPs of the virtual NICs, and then unplugging cables. Disconnecting 1 physical NIC will either do nothing, or disconnect both virtual NICs.
I apologize if I don't have my terminology correct, I am new to this. I will be glad to clarifiy if anyone can find the time to help me sort the issue. I am guessing it's some sort of operator error. 
