Inbound network traffic received on incorrect vSwitch uplink with Broadcom BCM57414 NPAR
Article ID: 439194
Updated On:
Products
Issue/Introduction
Network connectivity issues occur when a virtual machine on an ESXi host communicates with a virtual machine on the same ESXi host.
Packet captures indicate outbound traffic (e.g., ICMP echo requests) exits through the expected virtual switch uplink but does not exit the host.
Inbound return traffic (e.g., ICMP echo replies) is received on a different Network Partition (NPAR).
The mismatched NPAR partition is assigned to a completely different virtual switch.
The physical NIC incorrectly routes the return packet across partitions on the shared physical interface.
Environment
VMware vSphere ESXi
Broadcom BCM57414 network adapters configured with NPAR
Cause
The physical NIC's internal hardware switching, Virtual Ethernet Bridging (VEB) incorrectly routes return traffic internally across NPAR partitions, bypassing the ESXi virtual switch.
Resolution
This is a condition that may occur in a VMware vSphere environment.
Workaround:
Disable the internal hardware switching behavior directly within the host hardware BIOS by modifying the EVB method:
Reboot the affected ESXi host and access the system BIOS.
Navigate to the Device Configuration Menu for the Broadcom BCM57414 network adapter.
Locate the Default EVB method configuration setting.
Change the value from VEB to None.
Save the configuration changes and allow the host to boot into ESXi.
Note: SR-IOV must not be in use as VEB is generally required for SR-IOV environments
Additional Information
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