Disabling or Editing the 'High pNic error rate detected' Alarm in vSphere
Article ID: 437058
Updated On:
Products
Issue/Introduction
The vCenter Server reports a warning or critical alarm: "High pNic error rate detected. Check the host's vSAN performance view for details."
The alarm may trigger intermittently even when no physical network issues (e.g., CRC errors, packet loss) are present in the environment.
Environment
Vcenter server 8.x,9.x
ESXi 8.x, 9.x
Cause
This alarm triggers when physical NIC metric counter thresholds are surpassed. It can be caused by genuine network issues or by specific network protocols (e.g., Cisco WLCCP, DTP, or STP) that increment "Receive Length Errors" without impacting performance.
Resolution
If you have verified that there is no measurable vSAN network performance degradation and the alert is determined to be a false positive, you can disable or edit the alarm definition.
How to Disable the Alarm
Log in to the vSphere Client.
In the inventory tree, select the affected Cluster or ESXi Host.
Navigate to the Configure tab.
Under the Settings section, select Alarm Definitions.
In the search box, type: High pNic error rate detected.
Locate and select the alarm: "High pNic error rate detected. Check the host's vSAN performance view for details."
Click Disable to stop the alarm from triggering High pNIC error rate detected on ESXi host after upgrading ESXi host to version 8.0 u3.How to Edit the Alarm (Optional)
Instead of disabling the alarm entirely, you may choose to edit the thresholds if you want to keep the monitoring active with less sensitivity:
Follow steps 1–6 above to locate the alarm.
Select the alarm and click Edit.
Modify the Thresholds or Notification settings as required for your environment.
Click Save.Additional Information
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