This is a known issue and occurs when using 10GB NICs in your ESX configuration.
To workaround this issue when using 10GB vmnics that are not physically patched or cabled:
- Right click the host profile and click Edit Profile.
- Click + to expand the profile.
- Click Networking Configuration.
- Click Edit to the right of Which physical NICs should be connected to this vSwitch?.
- Click the vmnic in the Names of the Nics to attach field.
- Click Delete.
- Click OK.
To workaround this issue when using other 10GB vmnics:
- Right click the host profile and click Edit Profile.
- Click + to expand the profile.
- Click Physical NIC configuration.
- Click Physical network adapter and ensure that the Physical NIC to configure is the vmnic found in the logs.
- Click Edit to the right of How should the physical NIC be configured?.
- Select fixed physical nic configuration from the dropdown.
- Enter the name of physical nic in the *Name of the physical NIC to configure field.
- Enter the link speed in the *Link speed in Mbps field.
- Select the *Flag indicating if the NIC should be duplex check box.
- Click OK.
This changes the policy from auto-negotiate to a fixed setting and allows the the host profile to be successfully applied.