Windows 2000 Server VM NIC failure after virtual hardware upgrade

[jketron]

I upgraded a physical server from 3.5 to 4 U1a, then powered on VM, them upgraded VMtools, them powered down and upgraded virtual hardware as recommended.

Now the VMXNET driver will not install, when the tools are started or reinstalled again it states the driver did not install properly and will need to be manually installed. I update the driver in Windows and point to either the vmware-nic or vmxnet file in the vmtool directory and it still fails.

Has anyone seen this or know of a solution.

[Paule83]

Just as a workarround, have you tried changing the type of the NIC from vmxnet to vmxnet3 or something else?

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[cnidus]

It may not be exactly the same issue. But I found when performing the HW upgrade to 2000 and 2003 (non-sp) VM's, that the network card would be disabled and unavailable untill about a dozen "PCI-bridge" were installed. I believe it is to do with the new directpathIO functionality.

I suppose its possible if those installations failed or were cancelled, your network card may not be properly installed.

There was a KB about it, which I think might have been as a result of a service request I raised with VMware support.

I hope that helps. Let me knwo if I can be of any further assistance.

-Doug