VMXNET3 default network adapter

[wamatha]

How do make VMXNET3 default network adapter, instaed of E1000 on vCenter?

[Troy_Clavell]

The VMXNET3 adapter is only available to guests that have vHardware version 7.  Is this the case in your enviornment?

Also, see

Choosing a network adapter for your virtual machine (1001805)

[wamatha]

On VC when you build a new VM, the default NIC is E1000, hhow do I change that to VMXNET3?

My environment is upto date

[Troy_Clavell]

did you read the KB article I also posted?

[wamatha]

I read that before posting the question. On the drop down menu, to select the nic type, the default is E1000. How do you make VMXNET3 the default?

[Troy_Clavell]

if your guest OS supports VMXNET3, it will be the driver by default. What is your Guest OS, what hardware version are you running?  Do you see VMXNET3 in the dropdown list?

[wamatha]

The OS is Windows 2003/2008 and yest I see the VMXNET3 nic on the drop down menu. I though there was a way to make it default when building new VM guests. It defaults to E1000 whether you you deploy Windows 2008 or 2003.

[Troy_Clavell]

After a bit of searching and testing, you are correct, the default is E1000.  This may be because the VMXNET3 adapter is also used for FT, so VMware may be under the assumption not all guests need FT, so E1000 is the default adapter.  With that said, i'm not exactly sure how, or if, you can change it to be the default adapter.  One way we get around it, and is the reason I thought it was the default adapter is to create a template which uses the VMXNET3 adapter, therefore any guest deployed off that template will have the VMXNET3 adapter.

[DrNickT]

I'd like this functionality too.  We deploy all our VM's with VMXNET3, but sometimes people slip up and miss the selection.  So it would be nice to modify the defaults.

[Abukar]

There is no option available to make the default nic to VMXNET3. If you create lots of VMs I suggest you use Template and with correct nic and deploy your VMs from that template.