Network cards not detected on an ESXi host

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

When reviewing ESXi host, in either the vCenter or from the host directly, the Network cards (vmnics) are not present:

• In the vCenter UI select the Cluster and locate the host in question. Then go to Configure > Networking > Physical adapters:

 

• Directly from the ESXi host by clicking on Networking > Physical NICs:

 

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi

Cause

• After upgrading the ESXi host or after replacing a new PCIe NIC adapter the NICs are not recognized by the ESXi host.
• Incompatible driver/firmware versions,  please refer to Supported drivers and firmware versions for I/O devices for further details.
• Other hardware issues

Resolution

Start by verifying if the NICs are still not seen via an SSH session or via the DCUI:

1. The network cards are not listed from ESX CLI when running the below commands:
   • esxcfg-nics -l
   • esxcli network nic list
2. Running the command lspci -v | grep -A1 -i ethernet OR vmkchdev -l | grep -i vmnic 

If none of the above commands report any NICs on the ESXi host, there is an issue with how the hardware is presenting the physical NICs to the ESXi host. Please note that the network cards may be seen as healthy on the hardware side, however the commands above show that they are not being presented correctly to the ESXi host. This will need to be resolved by the hardware vendor. 

Additional Information

Other helpful documents regarding driver/firmware inquiries:

• FAQ: Recommendation for Driver/Firmware
• How to download and install async drivers in ESXi
• Check passthrough for a network device on host