VM loses network connection after ESXi host upgrade due to VMware Tools upgrade

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

When patching or upgrading a host, it requires that the host enter maintenance mode. When the patch/upgrade completes and the host exits maintenance mode, the host is ready to accept VM migrations to it, and run them.

This issue occurs when using vMotion to migrate VM's onto a host that was recently patched. After migrating, VM's lose connection to vCenter Server due to power state change in the VM (reboot).

Environment

• vCenter Server 7.x
• vCenter Server 8.x
• vSphere ESXi 7.x
• vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

When a host is patched or upgraded, it is possible that the host's version of VMware Tools it hosts for VM's gets updated also.

If a VM is migrated to the host after it is patched or upgraded, the VM may detect the new VMware Tools version on the host.

The VM will automatically install the newer VMware Tools version and potentially reboot, if the VM has setting "Check and upgrade VMware Tools before each power on" enabled. Refer to Broadcom tech doc "Configure Virtual Machines to Automatically Upgrade VMware Tools" for more information about the setting.

Resolution

If VM was migrated on to a recently upgraded/patched ESXi host and experienced this issue, follow these steps:

   1) Right-click the virtual machine and click Edit Settings.
   2) Click the VM Options tab and select VMware Tools.
   3) Disable the option that says Check and upgrade VMware Tools before each power on.
   4) Click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box.