Can't ping VM, but Kernel on it's vSwitch

[JoeAKim]

Hi.

I'm experiencing some trouble:

I have a "HP DL380" with one NIC on board, and an extra NIC. Each having 2 ports. It's runnging ESXi 4.0 Installable.

When I create a new vSwitch, connecting to the 1st port (Mainboard), everything is fine.

When I create a second vSwitch, connected to either the 2nd (Mainboard) port, 3rd or 4th (extra-Card) port, and connect one of the VMs to it, the VM can't neither see the network, nor can it be pinged from outside.

Now, if I add a VMkernel to that vSwitch, the Kernel can be pinged without problems, but the VM is still isolated.

The on board card is a "NC373i Integrated Multifunctional Gigabit Server Adapter".

The extra card is a "NC380T PCI Express Dual Port Multiunctional Gigabit Server Adapter".

We have the same setup for some other customers, where everything works fine.

I'd really apreciate some help

Thanks a lot,

Joachim.

[Jain]

a screenshot will help to make issue more clear

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[Texiwill]

Hello,

The first thing to check is that there is light on your physical switches. If so then I would look at the configuration and ensure the proper adapters are assigned to the proper vSwitches and portgroups. If you can vmkping the vmkernel port then most likely you have light and connectivity, but this then means the VM on its portgroup needs to investigated.

After checking the portgroup check to see if the vNIC is connected and available to your VM. Then inside the VM check subnetmasks and networks, ip addresses, etc.

Standard network debugging has to happen here unfortunately.

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009

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[JoeAKim]

Thank you for your help.

It seems that the additional NIC is not working right. After an other test, I found out that the 2. on board port IS working. Seems like the VM only had a timeout after I switched the vSwitch. So next step for me is to double check the 2nd NIC is properly attached.

[JoeAKim]

We've tried a new NlC, that didn't do it. (HP NC360T)

So, here's the whole problem once more::

Server: HP DL380 G5

OS: ESXi 4.0

1 On-Board NIC, Dual-Port.

1 PCIe NIC, Dual-Port.

The 1st port of the On-Board Port works fine. Every other time I restart the server, the 2nd On-Board Port has the same problem as any PCIe-Card.

When I create a new vSwitch, connecting to the 1st port (Mainboard), everything is fine. When I create a second vSwitch, connected to either the 2nd (Mainboard)

port, 3rd or 4th (extra-Card) port, and connect one of the VMs to it, the VM can't neither see the network, nor can it be pinged from outside. Now, if I add a VMkernel to that vSwitch, the Kernel can be pinged without problems, but the VM is still isolated.

I looked at the lights of the NIC, it flashes green at the beginning, later on the orange LED glows permanently. And I know that IP-Adress, Subnet-Mask, Gateway of the VM and the server are ok. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to ping (etc.) the VM when it's connected to the 1st NIC.

I already called HP, but they say when I can ping the card, then it's a VMware problem.

I'm sorry, I can't provide any screenshot, since I already took the PCIe Cards out of the server.

Thank you.