While I will check all of your suggestions, I really don't think they apply here. According to links like these - https://fluentreports.com/blog/?p=717 and https://www.nikhef.nl/~janjust/vmnet/ - the problem is with VMware (and has been since WS version 8). I have not tried applying the patch (as I'm not using DHCP anymore). So far, the only times I've seen the userif-3: sent link down/up events has been at system boot and whenever I start a VM; both events are fine with me.
