chipset.motherboardLayout is automatically changed to "acpi" when provisioning a virtual machine from the Content Library after upgrading the hardware version to 20 and higher
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chipset.motherboardLayout is automatically changed to "acpi" when provisioning a virtual machine from the Content Library after upgrading the hardware version to 20 and higher

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Article ID: 396781

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Updated On:

Products

VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

  • One of the following symptoms may be observed:
    1. Network identity loss after 3rd-party replication with Hardware Version 20 and higher
    2. Windows VMs (Server 2019, 2022, 2025) loses static IP settings after a failover or restore from 3rd-part repliaction (Zerto).
    3. The VM defaults to an APIPA 169.254.x.x address after cross-vCenter clone.
    4. A "Ghost NIC" (e.g., Network Adapter #2) appears in Device Manager.
    5. VMXNET3 adapter appears as new, un-enumerated hardware after replication
  • It is observed that chipset.motherboardLayout is automatically changed to "acpi" in the VMX file when provisioning a virtual machine via Content Library, even if the VM template contains chipset.motherboardLayout = "i440bx"
  • This causes the Guest OS to detect a hardware change, resulting in a loss of static IP addresses or the creation of "ghost" NICs.

  • While validating the template configuration, the following differences are found:
    • For the Virtual Machine template:

grep chipset *.vmtx

Output:
chipset.motherboardLayout = "i440bx"

    • For the Virtual Machine deployed via the Content Library:

grep chipset' *.vmx

Output:
chipset.motherboardLayout = "acpi"

Environment

VMware vCenter 8.0 Update 3f and earlier

Virtual Hardware Version 20 or 21

Windows Server 2019, 2022, 2025 Guest OS

3rd-party replication tools (Zerto, Cohesity)

Cause

In Hardware Version 20 and higher, the default motherboard layout for EFI-based VMs is "acpi". When 3rd-party tools use older versions of the vSphere Web Services SDK to construct a CreateVm API call, they may fail to carry over the motherboardLayout property from the source VM.

vSphere then defaults the destination VM to "acpi" instead of the legacy "i440bx" layout. Windows treats this PCI topology change as a physical motherboard swap, triggering Plug-and-Play (PnP) to reconfigure network devices.

Resolution

This issue has been resolved in VMware vCenter 8.0 Update 3g and later versions. Broadcom recommends upgrading to the latest version. See Download Broadcom Products and Software to download the release.

Note: For issues involving 3rd-party tools, contact the respective vendor (e.g., Zerto, Cohesity) to ensure their software is updated to support the latest vSphere SDK structure.

Workaround#1: Manual .vmx modification

  • Ensure the VM is powered off.
  • Locate the VM on the datastore and download the .vmx file.
  • Change chipset.motherboardLayout = "acpi" to chipset.motherboardLayout = "i440bx"
  • Upload the file and register/power on the VM.

Workaround#2: Proactive template modification

  • Install OS with firmware set to UEFI.
  • Switch firmware to BIOS before exporting to the Content Library.
  • After deploying to the destination, switch the firmware back to EFI before the first power-on.
  • This forces the correct motherboard layout to be written.

Additional Information

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