VM NICs show as Disconnected in vCenter

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

same symptoms from VM's Network adapter disconnects with error "Failed to connect virtual device 'Ethernet0'" after migration:

• vmware.log shows similar to the following errors:

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS| vmx| A100: ConfigDB: Setting ethernet0.allowGuestConnectionControl = "FALSE"
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS| vmx| I125: VigorTransport_ServerSendResponse opID=#####-#####-auto-####-##:#########-##-##-##-#### seq=664: Completed EthernetClass request.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS| vmx| I125: VigorTransportProcessClientPayload: opID=#####-#####-auto-####-##:#########-##-##-##-#### seq=665: Receiving Ethernet.ConnectionControl request.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS| vmx| I125: VMXNET3 user: failed to connect 'Ethernet0' to DV Port '1234'.  !!!!
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS| vmx| I125: VigorTransport_ServerSendResponse opID=#####-#####-auto-####-##:#########-##-##-##-#### seq=665: Completed Ethernet request with messages.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS| vmx| I125: Msg_Post: Error
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS| vmx| I125: [msg.device.badconnect] Failed to connect virtual device 'Ethernet0'.

• And there are the following errors reported from vmkernel.log at the same time:

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu28:2229027)Net: 2457: connected <Virtual Machine>.eth0 eth0 to vDS, portID 0x100001a
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu28:2229027)Net: 3149: associated dvPort 1234 with portID 0x100001a
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu28:2229027)DVFilter: 3696: Could not find filter 'vmware-sfw'
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu28:2229027)DVFilter: 5768: Failed to add filter vmware-sfw on vNic 0 slot 2: Not found
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu28:2229027)WARNING: Net: 3195: DVFilterActivateCommon failed for port 0x100001a: Failure
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu28:2229027)Net: 3707: dissociate dvPort 1234 from port 0x100001a
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu28:2229027)Net: 3713: disconnected client from port 0x100001a
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu23:2099628)LSOM: LSOMCommitDispatch:1614: ce562665-80a0-f5e8-0b28-40f2e91e33cd: duplicate barrier commit at CSN:LSN 4:11513, ignoring barrier commit
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu37:2104485)portcfg: PortCfgVsiGetParamPortCfg:392: : not found
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu37:2104485)portcfg: PortCfgVsiGetParamPortCfg:392: : not found
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu37:2104485)portcfg: PortCfgVsiGetParamPortCfg:392: : not found

• NSX-V was used in the environment in the past
• NSX-T is not yet configured on hosts

Cause

The ESXi host has a stale "dvfilter" or I/O chain entry associated with the VM's network interface. This can be caused by legacy security VIBs, stale management agent states, or failed vMotion tasks that did not gracefully tear down the network filter.

Resolution

 

• Log in to vCenter and Power Off the affected VM

• Edit the VM settings and Remove the disconnected Network Adapters 

• Migrate (Cold Migration) the VM to a different ESXi host in the cluster.

• Edit the VM settings and Add new Network Adapters (VMXNET3), assigning them to the correct Port Groups.

• Power On the VM.

 

Additional Information

If the issue persists on the original host, consider putting the host in maintenance mode and restarting management agents or rebooting the host.