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Upgrading virtual hardware to version 7 requires reinstallation of vmxnet driver (1007168)

Details

After upgrading the virtual hardware on a Windows NT virtual machine, the Windows NT guest operating system fails to obtain the IP address because Windows NT guest operating system does not fully support plug-and-play specification.  

Solution

This issue occurs when virtual hardware is upgraded from a Workstation 5.x to a Workstation 6.5.x  virtual machine, and from an ESX 3.x to an ESX 4.x virtual machine.
 
To resolve this issue, reinstall the vmxnet driver for virtual network adapter when upgrading from hardware version 4 to version 7.
 
Reinstall a driver for a virtual network adapter to complete the upgrade.
 
To add a virtual network adapter:
  1. Right-click the Network Neighborhood tab and select Properties. 
  2. Click the Adapters tab. 
  3. Remove the existing adapter and add a new adapter. Specify the new path as C:\winnt\system32. 
  4. To add a a virtual network adapter as AMD PCNet driver, select AMD PCNET Family Ethernet adapter. Specify the path as C:\winnt\system32 and reboot the virtual machine. 
  5. To add a virtual network adapter to vmxnet driver, click Have disk and specify path as C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\Drivers\vmxnet\. Upgrade to the latest VMware Tools version and reboot the virtual machine. 

Note: For upgrading hardware version on vSpehere please refer to vSphere Upgrade Guide.

Keywords

ws650, VMware Server, Windows NT, upgrade from an older Workstation version, reinstall a driver for a network adapter

Update History

01/06/2011 - Added link to vSphere Upgrade Guide.

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