Network Adapter is showing (Disconnected) under VM Hardware in vCenter UI.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Issue/Introduction

Network Adapter shows Disconnected under VM hardware.

• Ping Failures: Pinging the VM or from the VM fails with errors like "Request timed out" or "Destination Host Unreachable".
• Guest OS Status: Network icon in the VM shows "Not Connected" or "No Connections Available".
• IP Address will be missing from the Virtual Machine Details.
  
• Host-to-VM Communication: Can't connect to the VM from the host, or other VMs on different hosts can't reach it. 

Environment

ESXi 8.x

ESXi 7.x

Resolution

If a particular virtual machine is showing network  "disconnected" under the VM Hardware in the vCenter UI, the virtual network adapter for the virtual machine must be checked to ensure that it is connected.

To check the virtual network adapter using the vSphere/Virtual Infrastructure Client:

1. In the vSphere Client, right-click the virtual machine in question and select Edit Settings.
2. Highlight the virtual network adapter in the list of virtual hardware.
   
3. In the Network Connection dropdown, ensure the appropriate network is selected.

Additional Information

• Add Network Adapter. refer : Verifying virtual network adapter is present and connected to the virtual machine
• If there are no network adapters available inside the Guest OS, verify and ensure that VMware Tools is installed.
  • For more information, refer: Install VMware Tools in VMware products
  • For VM network issues , refer: Troubleshooting virtual machine network connection issues