As part of the troubleshooting issue with a VM, the NIC was disconnected and now unable to reconnect NIC of the VM.

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• Using edit settings from the UI, when the check box to connect the VNIC is clicked and then the change is saved, an error is observed:

         "Failed to reconfigure virtual machine <VM_name>, invalid configuration for device '9' "

       

• The VM is using a static-binding portgroup on a vDS which is managed by vCenter. 
• The vCenter is not operational

 

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

The port of a VM can only be reconnected/reconfigured to a static-binding port group when the the vCenter Server UI is available. If vCenter to host communication is lost, the VM will not be able to be reconfigured to a static-binding  port group on a vDS because vCenter is unavailable to give the VM a port binding. 

Resolution

To connect the VM, add it to a standard switch following the procedure as detailed in Migrate Virtual Machines (VMs) and VMkernel Adapters from Distributed Switch (vDS) to Standard Switch (vSS).

Additional Information

Information on Static (non-ephemeral) and ephemeral port binding