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mwalbert
Contributor
Contributor

VM periodically loses network connection

Hello everyone,

We have an odd problem, that probably has a relatively simple fix that has eluded me. One of our Windows 2003 virtual machines periodically loses network connectivity. Each time, the problem can be immediately remedied by switching the network that the adapter exists on to a different one, and back again to the original. This does not happen to any of the 98 or so other virtual machines we have.

VMWare ESX 3.5, Windows 2003 virtual machine, network adapter set as type: Flexible.

Anyone have a recommendation of what to look at first?

Thanks!

Michael

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8 Replies
Texiwill
Leadership
Leadership

Hello,

Moved to Virtual Machine and Guest OS forum.... Make sure the VM does not have a snapshot or snapshots associated with it as well as look at any logs within the VM and vmware.log associated with the VM. Ultimately you may have to look inside the vmkernel log file.


Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

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Edward L. Haletky
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VMTN Community Moderator
vSphere Upgrade Saga: https://www.astroarch.com/blogs
GitHub Repo: https://github.com/Texiwill
kjb007
Immortal
Immortal

I would look at the physical switch as well. When you change the NIC network and change it back, you are sending ARP packets to update MAC address tables on the local vSwitch as well as the physical switch. Something appears to be removing or forgetting that entry causing your connection to drop.

-KjB

vExpert/VCP/VCAP vmwise.com / @vmwise -KjB
mwalbert
Contributor
Contributor

Sound advice, I will start there. Thanks!

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RetoGloor
Contributor
Contributor

I am experiencing the same problem with 1 vm, started this week.

did you have any success?

regards

Reto

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adgross
Contributor
Contributor

I am having exactly the same issue with a couple of my virtual machines. It happens periodically and I usually resolve it by disabling and enabling the network connection.

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petedr
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Is there any snapshot processing that is occurring when the VM will drop a network connection.

www.phdvirtual.com, makers of esXpress

www.thevirtualheadline.com www.liquidwarelabs.com
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adgross
Contributor
Contributor

No snapshots running, no vmotion, and nothing in the logs on the vCenter or on the host that I was able to find.

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mikidutzaa
Contributor
Contributor

I have the exact same problem, I even opened a case with VMWare and they could not find anything, they suggested I call Microsoft.

If anyone solved this, please post the solution :(.

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