Unable to recover ESXi vmnic mapping

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

When switching your host from Legacy BIOS to UEFI, ESXi not connect to the network properly.

Environment

vSphere 8.x

Cause

• When the host is switched from the legacy BIOS configuration to UEFI, there is a possibility that the PCI device addresses that are presented to ESXi by the host will change. This issue stems from the physical host presenting its PCI devices to ESXi incorrectly.
• VMware PCI device alias name and associated configuration are assigned to vmnics based on their PCI address, when this change occurs, the existing configuration associated with one vmnic will now be associated with another, causing network adapters to stop working properly.

Resolution

If the issue is already occurring

If your host has already lost network connectivity after the BIOS change, proceed directly to Changing the names assigned by the ESXi host following KB how-vmware-esxi-determines-the-order-in.html

Alternative Workaround 

Revert the BIOS setting to original value. 

Additional Information

Reference Host loses network connectivity following change from legacy BIOS to UEFI