Since this is still the top post on Google, here's how I fixed this:
The vSwitch with the VMkernel management port was not configured correctly to communicate with the physical switch. I have a 2 port trunk created on the switch, and I had to set the management port to use IP hash based routing, rather than the default "orignal port". If you're trunking ports, make sure you have the teaming and failover configured correctly.
