Ping attempts from a Windows VM resulted in a 'General Failure' error.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• The Windows virtual machine is experiencing network connectivity issue.
• VM guest is booted up, but has no Network connectivity.
  • When trying to ping its gateway IP, or other IPs, it gets "General failure"
    
    
    
    
• The VM failed to send ICMP echo requests to both the default gateway and other virtual machines residing within the same subnet with the 'General Failure' error.
• Packet capture analysis revealed an absence of transmitted packets (tx) on the virtual network interface card (vNIC) of the virtual machine.
• Packet loss was observed prior to reaching the virtual network interface card (vNIC), indicating that the packet drops occurred within the guest Operating System

Environment

VMware ESXi

Cause

Window network communication failures where data packets can't be sent properly, often seen as "Ping: transmit failed. General failure." in Windows, can stem from incorrect IP settings, firewall blocks, bad network drivers, 3rd-party security applications installed in the OS, or hardware issues. This error indicates your device can't find the route or isn't allowed to send the data

Resolution

This "General error" indicates the Operating System was unable to send the network packet for one reason or another and investigation needs to occur within the OS. 

Additional Information

For a known possible cause for this error, see Ping attempts from the Windows VM resulted in a 'General Failure' error when a security software agent is installed in the guest Operating System.

For additional troubleshooting recommendations, see Troubleshooting and understanding physical NIC receive or transmit dropped, missed and error counters in ESXi.