Change vCenter and SQL server NIC from E1000 to Vmxnet3

[slayer0605]

We have just implemented a new monitoring tool that is experiencing latency issues monitoring vCenter. One possible solution is to change the nic drivers from e1000 to vmxnet3 so i just wanted to ask the community if this would cause any known issues? We currently run vSphere 4.1, ESX 4.1, VM Version 7 and the guest os is Windows 2008R2 SP1.

My plan to achieve this is as follows so would appreciate any comments as to whether it is viable.

1. Note the ip config, network label and esx host for both the vcenter and sql servers

2. use vSphere client to connect to the hosts hosting the two VM's

3. stop and disable the virtual center services

4. stop and disable the SQL services

5. Uninstall the existing E1000 nics in windows

6. Power down the vm's

7. Add a new NIC using the vmxnet3 driver and configured on the correct network

8. logon to the VM's console directly connected to the ESX hosting the VM's

9. Configure the IP settings

10 enable and restart SQL services

11. enable and restart the vCenter services

Any advise would be much appreciated.

[rcporto]

I'm not aware about any possible issue, but before remove the E1000 virtual interface, remove the IP address, otherwise a ghost adapter will hold the IP address and you will need some additional steps to remove the IP address from the E1000 and assign to VMXNET3.

[slayer0605]

Thank you for that, i will certainly add that to my plan, much appreciated.

[nem1s1s]

How to change the network adapter to VMXNET3 for a Windows guest

http://www.vmwarebits.com/content/how-to-change-network-adapter-to-vmxnet3-for-windows-guest

Also, Step 6 is not necessary for anything after Windows 2003.

[slayer0605]

I did what I planned and thought I better update in case someone else reads this thread as it did not work.

As vcenter was stopped, when I tried to add the new nic, the Network Label drop down box was not populated. We only use distributed virtual switches and all ports are set as static so there was no way I could add a nic. At this point we had no vcenter so we had to get the virtual center vm restored from tape. This in itself was tricky for the backup team as normally, restores would require vcenter but they used a special mode to restore straight to an esx host.

So does anyone have a process that works for changing the nic on both the virtual center and the sql server used by vcenter.

[SavkoorSuhas]

Food for thought, removing NIC and adding will change MAC address, If applications are depending on this, it might break.

Workaround:

virtuallyPeculiar: Changing The Network Adapter Type of A Virtual Machine Without Removing The NIC

Suhas