Hello,
maybe i could get some pointers here on how to get out of the mess that i currently got at my hands.
We inherited this VBlock0 Environment from a sponsor, it has 8 ESX hosts, Vcenter (version 4.1) and other servers including the 2 Nexus 1k were running as VMs on those 8 ESX machines.
On the weekend 2 of the ESX hosts had a kernel panic, and ofc it was the ones which were running the nexus vsm and the Vcenter. 
After rebooting the hosts and then trying to restart the Vcenter and some other VMs as well i noticed, that the VMs lost their network cards.
In the vmware.log i found lines like this:
Sep 02 16:15:45.136: vcpu-0| VMXNET3 user: failed to connect Ethernet1 to DV Port 197.
Sep 02 16:15:45.140: vcpu-0| [msg.device.startdisconnected] Virtual device Ethernet1 will start disconnected.
Sep 02 16:15:45.143: vcpu-0| VMXNET3 user: failed to connect Ethernet0 to DV Port 238.
Sep 02 16:15:45.145: vcpu-0| [msg.device.startdisconnected] Virtual device Ethernet0 will start disconnected.
Any helpful input on how to proceed is appreciated.
Accepted Solutions
Since i resolved this by myself, i might as well answer my own question, maybe this is helpful for someone else.
From what i understand now Vcenter and dv-switches are kind of co-dependend, since vcenter handles the port assignments for them.
Here is what i did:
- ssh into into the esx hosts and unregister vcenter and sql server vms
- create a local vswitch with esxcfg-vswitch
- create portgroups with the proper vlan IDs on the local switch
- unbind a vmnic from the dvswitch and bind it to the vswitch (esxcfg-vswitch -Q)
- edit the virtual machines .vmx file (make a copy! ) and take out the lines starting with ethernet0.dvs.*
- replace that with a line ethernet0.networkName = "portgroup name on your local switch"
- start vcenter, go to the console of the vm and reconfigure the network card since windows will think its a new one
- then start the dvs-switches virtual machines
and after a few mins things where back in working order..then i shutdown/unregisterd vcenter, replaced the vmx with the orginal and unbound the vmnic from the local switch and deleted the switch.
Was this the best path or is there a simpler way i didnt find ? 
Since i resolved this by myself, i might as well answer my own question, maybe this is helpful for someone else.
From what i understand now Vcenter and dv-switches are kind of co-dependend, since vcenter handles the port assignments for them.
Here is what i did:
- ssh into into the esx hosts and unregister vcenter and sql server vms
- create a local vswitch with esxcfg-vswitch
- create portgroups with the proper vlan IDs on the local switch
- unbind a vmnic from the dvswitch and bind it to the vswitch (esxcfg-vswitch -Q)
- edit the virtual machines .vmx file (make a copy! ) and take out the lines starting with ethernet0.dvs.*
- replace that with a line ethernet0.networkName = "portgroup name on your local switch"
- start vcenter, go to the console of the vm and reconfigure the network card since windows will think its a new one
- then start the dvs-switches virtual machines
and after a few mins things where back in working order..then i shutdown/unregisterd vcenter, replaced the vmx with the orginal and unbound the vmnic from the local switch and deleted the switch.
Was this the best path or is there a simpler way i didnt find ?
