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Today we've stumbled on a very awkward situation with our VMWare Server. The server is with ESX 3.5 that has a 1Gbps NIC.

We bought a brand new managed Cisco Linksys switch with 10/100Mbps interface ports but when we plugged the cable in one of the ports the link simply does not wanted to activate :S...

Does anyone with more VMware experience have ever had similar problem? From what I know is that 1Gbps NICs are backwards compatible with 100Mbps switches.

This is what we've tryed so far but with no success:

  1. Tryed: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1004089

  2. Tryed to modify the /etc/modules.conf folowing the guide from this article http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=813

  3. After the changes I have restarted the networking services using # service network restart, # service mgmt-vmware restart and # service vmware-vpxa restart

It seems that no matter how many times, or whatever approach/method (GUI or Shell) we try to change the speed and duplex of the network adapter and to force it to 100mbps it only accepts 1Gbps ..

I am starting to go nuts :@

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What NIC does the server have? –  David Schwartz Apr 2 '12 at 17:59
Is there an actual networking problem yet? You didn't specify that the server is not routable, etc etc. –  Joel E Salas Apr 2 '12 at 18:00
Does it work on another port or another switch? If so the port or switch is the problem. If not, the NIC is the problem. –  August Apr 2 '12 at 18:27
Is it a HP Blade? if so then they do sometimes use 1Gig-only cards, I know they're made by broadcom so maybe they have their own-branded version. Best just check on their site to see if you've bought a 1Gig-only card really. –  Chopper3 Apr 2 '12 at 18:27
@Chopper3 | Yes.. it is a HP Blade... i've just read on other forums that broadcom made 1gig only cards! FFS I can't believe that a company can be that stupid and create network cards that are not backwards compatible! –  Spirit Apr 2 '12 at 22:24

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