Virtual machines (VMs) lose network connectivity on specific NSX segments

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

Moving affected VMs to a standard vDS port group restores connectivity, but returning them to the NSX segment fails.

The affected segment appears grayed out in the NSX Manager UI with a status of In Progress or Deleting.

 

Controller logs (syslog or l2AppUfo) show the following error:

Failed to find or create logical entry LogicalSwitchId:[id=####, vni=-1]

 

Segment metadata reveals the deletion flag:

GET /policy/api/v1/infra/segments?include_mark_for_delete_objects=true shows "marked_for_delete": true.

Environment

VMware NSX
NSX Federation (Global Manager and Local Manager architectures)

Cause

In an NSX Federation environment, deleting a segment at the Global Manager (GM) level triggers the Central Control Plane to unbind the Virtual Network Identifier (VNI). If active port attachments (VMs) exist on a Local Manager (LM), the cleanup may fail to propagate fully. This leaves the segment orphaned—it is marked for deletion at the Policy level, and its VNI is set to -1 (unassigned) in the controller. Any event requiring a new control plane lookup (power cycle, vMotion) causes the controller to drop traffic because the segment is no longer a valid forwarding target.

Resolution

This behavior is addressed in release 4.2.2.1 and higher, which prevents the deletion of GM segments if active VMs are still attached. See Download Broadcom Products and Software to download the latest release.

For segments already stuck in a Marked for Delete state:

• Identify the orphaned segment: Confirm the segment is grayed out or shows "In Progress" in the NSX UI.
• Create a replacement: Create a new NSX segment on the Global Manager with the required VLAN/Gateway configuration and a unique display name.
• Migrate all workloads: Immediately migrate all VMs from the orphaned segment to the new, healthy segment.
• Avoid management triggers: Do not vMotion, power cycle, or modify NIC settings for VMs remaining on the orphaned segment, as this will result in immediate connectivity loss.
• Cleanup: Once all ports reach zero, the orphaned segment should complete its deletion cycle automatically.