Virtual Machines lose network connectivity after VMotion, cannot connect to a network during power on, or receive error messages like failed to activate 'Ethernet0’

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

VMs cannot connect to their network during power on

VMs lose network connectivity after VMotion to a new host

You may see log lines such as: vmfs/folumes/datastore/virtualmachinename/vmware.log:

<Timestamp> In(05) vcpu-1 - VMXNET3 user: Activate device 0.
<Timestamp> In(05) vcpu-1 - VMXNET3 user: failed to activate 'Ethernet0', status: 0xbad0014
<Timestamp> In(05) vcpu-1 - VMXNET3 user: Activate request failed for device 0.

And in /var/log/vmkernel.log
<Timestamp> cpu0:2106772)WARNING: FlowCache.fc: FC_PortInvalEntityInit:529: [nsx@6876 comp="nsx-esx" errorCode="ESX20"]Unable to Alloc port invalEntity for port :0x402cdd2
<Timestamp> cpu0:2106772)WARNING: FlowCache.fc: FC_PortCacheEnable:2306: [nsx@6876 comp="nsx-esx" errorCode="ESX20"]Failed to init inval Entity [0x402cdd2]
<Timestamp> cpu0:2106772)WARNING: kcp: KCPSetPortProp:514: [nsx@6876 comp="nsx-esx" subcomp="kcp"]Failed to set port 67292626 property com.vmware.net.port.fc.enabled : Out of memory

Environment

VMware NSX-T Data Center
VMware NSX 4.0.0.1
VMware NSX-T Data Center 3.x

Cause

This is a known issue in NSX 4.0.x and older, and NSX-T 3.2.2 and older.

Resolution

This is resolved in NSX-T 3.2.3 and NSX 4.1.0.

Workaround:
Reboot the affected ESXi host for a temporary resolution.

Additional Information

Impact/Risks:

Virtual machines will not be able to connect to the network after power on or vmotion.

VMs using DHCP addresses will not receive an IP.