I have an odd networking issue I can't get to the bottom of in my environment. Virtual machines will randomly lose network connectivity. Sometimes a vMotion to another host will fix the problem, other times I disconnect/reconnect the virtual NICs and that restores connectivity. Occasionally I have to do both a vmotion and then a disconnect/reconnect of the NIC to get the vm connectivity back. It doesn't happen to all vms on a given host, and it doesn't happen to the same vms every time. I just deployed a new virtual appliance on a host with running vms that are fine, and the virtual appliance started up unable to see any network connectivity. A vMotion and disconnect/reconnecton the vm NIC fixed it. Interestingly, I can vMotion it back to the host it had issues with, and it remains fine. Here are the environment specs:
vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 U2
(1) vDS for networking (same issues occurred with standard switches)
ESXi 5.5 U2 running on 5 hosts (2 NICs per host):
(3) Dell CS24-SC
HP ProLiant ML-150 G5
Dell PowerEdge T300
NetGear 24 port gigabit switch (unmanaged)
One class C subnet
I am wondering if there is arp corruption going on or some other issue such as a failing NIC.
Thanks in advance for any tips or thoughts!