"Event ID 172: Connectivity state in standby: Disconnected, Reason: NIC Compliance" on a VM that loses network connectivity

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• A Windows VM has lost network connectivity at the Guest OS level. 
  
  
• The ESX logs, and VM logs were investigated and no issues were found with the hypervisor or the VM hardware at the time of the disconnect. 
  
  
• In the Windows System Event Logs, the following event ID and message is found:
  
  172: Connectivity state in standby: Disconnected, Reason: NIC compliance

Cause

The Windows operating system has flagged a compliance issue with the NIC and has disconnected the NIC from the network. 

Resolution

Microsoft will need to be contacted for further investigation as to why the NIC entered a disconnected state due to compliance.