vSphere vmnic numbering

[Luca Ruzzeddu]

I am deploying vSphere 5.5 to a group of B-420-M3 , fw level 2.2.(2c) .

Looking on UCSM at the profiles and corresponding blade, the NICs show vmnic0 to 3 as designed (I am assigning 4 NICs).

Once vSphere gets installed (I am using Vmware Autodeploy), the vmnic numbering as reported by the hypervisor is out-of-whack, with the vmnics reporting vmnic64 to 67. Clearly the host can't get on the network anymore . When I manually assign a valid IP to the NIC whose MAC corresponds to vmnic0, I am back on the network. It loooks like vSphere , once loaded, changes the vmnic numbering. Has anyone seen this behaviour before?

Thanks

[Keny Perez]

Luca,

That's outlined here:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2019871

You may want to contact VMware for additional info.

Pay special attention to the "Notes" section:

• Changing VMNIC names by editing the esx.conf file is not supported by VMware.
• To support a more robust driver interface and native drivers in ESXi 5.5, the ordering algorithm for VMNICs has changed.

HTH,

-Kenny

[Luca Ruzzeddu]

Kenny,

Thank you but does not solve the problem in an environment where vSphere is pushed via Autodeploy + Host Profiles and Answer files.

So this is how it got fixed:

First I created a Host Profile from scratch, using vmnic64 and 66 as the physical links for the DS. Through console I edited the network settings so the host could connect to vcenter. I created an answer file, then rebooted. Oddly, the host came with the current vmnic numbering, so I edited the hostfile to reflect that and all is good. NOt sure why this happened, maybe just an additional reboot would do it.

[Keny Perez]

interesting... sadly I can't mark this as "answered" so that future users can see how you solved it.

Thanks for sharing,

-K