ESXI 6 server suddenly cannot ping default gateway

This server has been running without any issues for months. All of a sudden the vm's can't be reached and the management address for the ESXI server cannot be reached. I connected a monitor to the physical server to see if it was online. It was, so i checked that status of the network interfaces and they were connected. I ran a test checking the management network and it Failed. I restarted the server twice and still the same issue. Has anyone had an issue like this?

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jack84ie

first off what is your infrastructure ?

Secondly;
Any updates done within ESXi or vCenter ? can you putty into your ESXi Host and check vmnics to see if Frame-ware is at its current version to support ESXi 6.0 update 1a.. did you download the ESXi Host Image from vmware them-self's or did you download your vendor EXSi Host Image with the proper drivers pr-installed ?

blargoe

Is this a vCenter managed ESXi, or a standalone server?

techiie

Standalone esxi 6 server running on a Dell poweredge 1950. No updates done this was downloaded direct from vmware around june or so. Everything was working fine for months no changes or updates were done (may be why). Today suddenly not working. I think the power may have went out last night for a few minutes from a storm but the server is running on a ups. I can only connect to it locally accessing it remotely is not working since as for whatever reason there isn't any network connectivity.

jack84ie

techiie wrote: »

Standalone esxi 6 server running on a Dell poweredge 1950

Did you download the ESXi 6.0 from Dell or Vmware ? remember if you don't download from your Vendor you will be missing Drivers

techiie

Downloaded from vmware.

techiie

But it was working without any issues for 7 months..

techiie

If I do a reinstall will the dell provided vmware image will it overwrite my current datastore?

Deathmage

This is your problem:

your server may have had a UPS on it, but since you lost power I'm going to speculate that you also lost power to your ISP modem? - if this is true, did you sustain any lighting strikes in your area? - if so or even if not so your network switch may have sustained a surge. This has happened to me in the past with dell servers.

You may think the UPS on the server is enough but if you forget the switch or the connection from your ISP those can still carry a high voltage charge thru them and fry a network card instantly.

If you still have internet at home, what I would do is get a network card for the server and replace it and then power on the server on a different port on your home switch.

Let us know how you make out....

techiie

So a network card would be "fried" even if it shows connectivity? If thats the case that would definitely be a new one for me. Not sure if it was there was lightning or not it was a storm in the middle of the night and my car was wet. I know the pc's that were on were found off from a improper shutdown meaning the power went out. I'll try to replace the network card and hopefully that fixes my problem.

techiie

I'm starting to think the both onboard NICs went bad. I checked the switch and didn't see an arp entry or mac address-table entry for the ports connected to the server.

techiie

I'm running vmkernel build 2494585 I read that with this build people had network issues and the upgrade to 1a fixed those issues. Is there a way to apply the patch for VMware ESXi 6.0 1a locally. Also, if I apply the download from the Dell Customized Image of VMware ESXi 6.0 Update 1 on the current non dell image install that was originally installed will that break everything?

TheProf

I am going to assume that your NICs are redundant? Or perhaps you have one NIC but multiple ports?

I've had this issue happen when one of the paths of the redundant connections (in this case the management network) wasn't properly configured on the network side. Both VMs and Host lost network connectivity. I had to reconfigure the Blade Fabric to get it work correctly. Depending on how your NIC load balancing policy is applied, it's possible that your redundant connection (secondary port) is not properly configured. This would then affect you if your VMs all of a sudden switched to using the other uplink on the redundant connection. You might also experience disconnects from VMs if you vMotion the VM to another host, it's the way the Port ID works if you're using the default load balancing policy (Route Based on Originating Virtual Port).

Double check everything is properly configured. Whats your Load Balancing policy currently set to?

To test, you can also set to use one Uplink, test to see if connectivity is functioning as expected, if it does, remove it from the group, then add the second uplink, again, test connectivity, etc.

Deathmage

techiie wrote: »

I'm running vmkernel build 2494585 I read that with this build people had network issues and the upgrade to 1a fixed those issues. Is there a way to apply the patch for VMware ESXi 6.0 1a locally. Also, if I apply the download from the Dell Customized Image of VMware ESXi 6.0 Update 1 on the current non dell image install that was originally installed will that break everything?

only way to upload it is via accessing via the client, which assumes network access.

techiie

Will testing management network within the VMWARE GUI show a PASS when using the local loopback address (127.0.0.1) because my result is FAILED. Just want to confirm whether or not it will ping the local loopback to confirm the nic is bad.

techiie

Yes I am using both onboard nic's on the dell server for failover. I ran it in single mode. Whats a quick way onboard the server to validate if the nic port is good or not?

jack84ie

techiie wrote: »

If I do a reinstall will the dell provided vmware image will it overwrite my current datastore?

Download the Dell Vendor ESXi update 1a when you get the option to upgrade or fresh install click on upgrade this will upgrade your system only, are you running your vm locally or on Storage ?