Unable to list or change the port groups of the vNICs of VMs when we go to Edit Settings. The error displayed is "This VM is attached to a network port group VM Network that doesn't exist. Edit this VM and attach it to a different network".

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• The issue has been observed on the ESXi host client, when VMs are using the VSS VM network portgroup.
• Unable to see the assigned portgroup when we go to VM Edit Settings.
• Portgroup is present on the GUI, CLI commands and configstore.
• Unable to assign the affected VSS network portgroup to a new virtual machine.
• It shows the following error message when we go to the summary page on the affected VM.

"This VM is attached to a network port group VM Network that doesn't exist. Edit this VM and attach it to a different network" 

• It shows the following error message when we go to VM edit settings in the ESXi host client.

"The portgroup for Network adapter 1, VM network could not be found"

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi

Cause

The issue occurs because the portgroup on the standard switch(VSS) was used by both VMs and VMkernel adapter.

Resolution

It is an expected behavior. The VMkernel portgroup should be dedicated for the VMkernel adapter on On the standard switch(VSS).

The VMkernel should not be created/connected to a standard switch(VSS) port group which is already connected to a VM.