Intermittent network disconnection when using Windows 2012 and E1000 adapter

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Intermittent network disconnect when using Windows 2012 and E1000 adapter.
• Updating to ESXi 6.0 Update 2 as recommended in Windows 2012 virtual machines using E1000/E1000e driver experience loss of network connectivity (2109922) does not help.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
VMware Fusion 8.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5

Cause

This issue occurs because E1000 adapter is not supported with Microsoft Windows releases such as:

• Win8.x (8.0 and above)
• Windows 2012
• Windows 2012 R2 and above.

Resolution

Beginning with certain date ESXi releases E1000 adapter is not supported anymore with the following Windows releases:
- Win8.x (8.0 and above)
- Windows 2012
- Windows 2012 R2 and above.

The end of support is mainly from the intel where, the e1000 driver in Windows have many bugs and no longer supported by Intel.

Below VMware HCL link have the details on e1000 not support with 2012 server latest versions.

VMware Compatibility Guide

Additional Information

Windows 2012 virtual machines using E1000/E1000e driver experience loss of network connectivity