Alright, I'm pretty sure the problem is related to ESXi 5.0. I just reinstalled ESXi 4.1, installed the drivers for my Intel 82580 based quad port NIC, and the vmnics came right back up.
Installed ESXi 5.0 and all four of the vmnics have vanished. ![]()
My system specs:
I'd like to stay with ESXi 5.0 since you can run nested hypervisors with this version.