Wake-On-LAN setting of a NIC might be reset to Wake on MagicPacket (g) mode after NIC configuration is changed

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

When you use ethtool to change the Wake-On-LAN (WoL) setting of a NIC, the setting might be reset to Wake on MagicPacket (g) mode. This occurs when you perform any one of the following actions:

• Unplug the NIC cable.
• Plug the NIC cable.
• Change the speed setting of the NIC.
• Change the duplex setting of the NIC.
• Change the auto-negotiation setting of the NIC.
• Change other NIC settings from esxcfg-nics or ethtool commands.

The output might look similar to the following:
~ # ethtool vmnic2
Settings for vmnic2:
....
Supports Wake-on: pumbg
Wake-on: g
....

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware ESX 4.0.x

Resolution

This is an expected behavior in ESX / ESXi.

WoL needs to be set to Wake on MagicPacket mode at all time for Distributed Power Management (DPM) feature, so that ESX / ESXi implicitly sets the WoL to Wake on MagicPacket (g) mode whenever possible.

This can also occur when DPM feature is disabled.

Additional Information

For translated versions of this article, see:

• 日本語: NIC 構成の変更後、NIC の Wake-On-LAN 設定が［Wake on MagicPacket モード (g) ］にリセットされる (2077644)