What is the maximum number of vNICs on a vSphere VM?

[visitor]

The configuration maximums says 10, but I can only add 4. Hardware 7 seems to have the same limitations as hardware 4:

6 virtual PCI slots, one taken by the video card, 5 available for vSCSI controllers and vNICs, no more than 4 max of one type of the other. The configuration maximum guide can't be wrong can it? Or am I missing something????

[weinstein5 · Accepted solution]

Are you sure the hardware has been upgraded - I have had no problems adding more than 4 vnics with a VM that has upgraded hardware -

If you find this or any other answer useful please consider awarding points by marking the answer correct or helpful

[TomHowarth]

As Wienstien5 says are you absolutely certain that the VM you are attempting to install more that 4 NIC is has been upgraded to version 7 hardware??? verify by checking the Hardware version level in the VMX file.

if the hardware level is at 7 the following line should be present

virtualHW.version = "7"

else it would say

virtualHW.version = "4"

If you found this or any other answer useful please consider the use of the Helpful or correct buttons to award points

Tom Howarth VCP / vExpert

VMware Communities User Moderator

Blog: www.planetvm.net

Contributing author for the upcoming book "[VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment|http://my.safaribooksonline.com/9780136083214]”. Currently available on roughcuts

[visitor]

That was the problem. I created about a dozen HW 7's and 1 HW 4 for testing purposes. The one I randomly selected to add nics to was the HW 4 one. Thanks. When editing the settings of a VM, the HW version is in the upper right corner below the x close box widget.