Windows VM's loose network connections on ESXi 3.5

[theone99]

Hi There..

I have 1 ESX Server 3i 3.5 server in a stand alone environment (no virtual center).

Version of ESX 3i Server:----

---

ESX Server 3i, version 3.5.0, build 123629

3 guests running Windows XP SP3 operating system

HW for host:----

---

Sun x4150, 2 Quad Core E5450 3 GHz processors, 16 GB of RAM with 4 Network Cards:

2 Intel 80003ES2LAN Gigabit Controllers (e1000 driver)

2 Intel 82571EB Gigabit Controllers (e1000 driver)

Problem:----

---

The guests (3 guests each running WinXP) sometimes loose their network connection for no appearant reason.

The only way for me to reconnect them is to power cycle them. I have looked around and found KB Article 1006661. BUT KB Article 1006661 is only for

• 64-bit SLES9 SP3 virtual machines with e1000 drivers

• Broadcom BCM5700 NICs

which don't apply in my situation.

Perhaps I'm not running the latest build? Perhaps I need a patch? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[Texiwill]

Hello,

Moved to Virtual Machine and Guest OS forum.

Few things to check,

do the VMs have snapshots? if so, they can cause this.

do you have VMware Tools installed? if so remove the vmxnet driver and switch back to the pcnet32, do the problems recur?

Are there any errors within the vmware.log for each VM?

Are there any network errors in the logs for ESXi? You can get these logs through the VIC.

Any issues with the pNIC in the host? Cable from pNIC? or Switch Port?

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.
Blue Gears and SearchVMware Pro Blogs -- Top Virtualization Security Links -- Virtualization Security Round Table Podcast

[theone99]

Hi There...

I have a couple of questions regarding your response.

1) Why would snapshots cause this problem? Is this a known issue of snapshots or is this an issue where the user is not using snapshots correctly?

Am I implementing snapshots incorrectly? I would like to know how snapshots could cause this problem so I could either come up with a work around - or explain to my boss in a coherent manner that snapshots are not recommended.

2) You mention about the possbility of uninstalling the vmxnet driver and reverting back to pcnet32 - I am assuming this is simply a way of isolating the problem. Are there issues with vmxnet - I thought that was a reliable driver - especially over the pcnet32 driver - am I wrong in that assumption?

Thanks!

[theone99]

So, anyone? Anyone?

I rolled back the driver from vmxnet to the AMD driver and it seems to be working for now, but could you someone give me a clue as to why the vmxnet driver would have a problem?

I would think that the vmxnet driver would be more RELIABLE. So, why is it the opposite?

As I mentioned before, the guest OS is Windows XP.

Thanks!

[theone99]

PS: Why would snapshots cause this problem? Are you referring to VM's using the same MAC address? I checked and these VM's are not using the same MAC addresses.

[Cooldude09]

Try to ping continuously and see how much packet loss . Also try deleting the network and re-adding and see if it works.

Regards

Anil

Save the planet, Go Green

if you found my answer to be useful, feel free to mark it as Helpful or Correct.

[JohnOnwardTechn]

I have the same problem, with different hardware (except the nic). Win2003 guests loose packets regularly.

Setup: Compaq Presario SR2177CL

• Generic Asus/Nforce4/AM2 MB

• AMDx2 3800 proc

• 8GB ram

• 400GB WD sata/2 HDD on integrated nForce sata controller

• integrated nforce 10/100 nic

• add-in Intel pro/1000 PCI card

with fragmented pings (ping <ip> -t -l 64000) I have over 50% loss.

• Upgrading from ESXi Update 2 to Update 3 reduces loss to 25%

• Switching from Pro/1000 nic to nforce 10/100 nic eliminates packet loss.

• Removing VMWare tools eliminates packet loss.

The problem appears to be interaction between the Pro/1000 ESXi driver (e1000) and the modified VMWare guest nic driver.

[gjessup]

Having exact same problem. Running windows 7 under VMWare ESXi. When vmware tools is installed, I can access with console or remote desktop for about 30 to 45 seconds then network drops. Even under these conditions, was eventaully able to uninstall VMWare tools, and now things work, but can't use vmware tools.

Obviously some bug in vmware tools.

[philvirt]

Uninstall VMware tools completely.

Reboot.

Install VMware Tools.

Reboot.

Power Down the VM and remove the network adapter.

Create a new adapter.

Power on, let OS reinstall adapter and reboot.

Hope this helps...

Thanks,

phIL