VMs network adapter disconnected after reboot, power cycle or HA failover event

 Problem

Virtual Machines show network adapter in “disconnected” state after reboot, power cycle or HA failover event.

 Solution

Please note that when using the vSphere client to disconnect network adapters, you may need to manually set the "Connect At Power On" (start_connected) option in some cases. To avoid this issue, we strongly recommend using the vss-cli or the ITS Private Portal.

ITS Private Cloud CLI (vss-cli)

Using https://vss-cli.eis.utoronto.ca or a local VSS CLI install:

  1. Verify the current status of the network adapter in question:

    vss-cli compute vm get {vmId-or-Name} nic {nicNumber}
  2. label : Network adapter 1 mac_address : 00:50:56:aa:bb:cc type : vmxnet3 network.name : VL-0000-NAME network.moref : dvportgroup-11234 connected : True start_connected : False
    1. Note that start_connected is set to False.

  3. To mitigate this, run the following command:

    vss-cli --wait compute vm set {vmId-or-Name} nic up --state connect {nicNumber}
  4. Then when you should expect an output like so:

Note that start_connected must show up as True.

 

ITS Private Cloud Portal

  1. Login to https://vss-portal.eis.utoronto.ca

  2. Search for the VM to change and click on the   button.

  3. Expand the Networks tab and set the toggle to Down. Then click save:

  4. Search for the VM to change and click on the   button.

  5. Expand the Networks tab and set the toggle to Up. Then click save:

vSphere Client

  1. Login to vCenter Server.

  2. Look for the VM in question.

  3. Click on “Edit Settings”.

  4. Expand the network adapter in question, tick “Connect at Power On”, and click OK.

Note that it is always recommended to use the ITS Private Cloud Portal or CLI for managing VM configurations to avoid scenarios like this.

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