ESXCLI command to enable a disabled vmknic on vDS fails

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
Sysadmins may need to temporarily disable a vmknic and do some troubleshooting and then re-enable the vmknic later on.
$ esxcli network ip interface set -i <vmknic> -e false
$ esxcli network ip interface set -i <vmknic> -e true

The enable command may fail if the vmknic is on vSphere Distributed Switch( vDS), you may see an error similar to:

$ esxcli network ip interface set -i <vmknic> -e true
SysinfoException: Node (VSI_NODE_net_tcpip_instances_plumb) ; Status(bad0003)= Not found; Message= Instance(1):defaultTcpipStack Input(7) if=5 dvsId=50 2d a8 69 09 fb cf a1-ed 8b 32 a4 7a a6 2c e6 portId=528 cnId=819161394 macaddr=00:50:56:64:8d:7f tsomss=65535 mtu=1500

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.7.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7
VMware vCenter Server 6.7.x
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Installable
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5

Cause

After disabling the vmknic the associated port may be reclaimed by vDS, so the port may not be available any more when the vmknic is enabled again.

Resolution

Do not disable/enable the vmknic if it is on vSphere Distributed Switch(vDS).