ESXi host keeps disconnecting

Question

I have just installed ESXi 5.1 update 2 on my home server, but the host keeps disconnecting after a few seconds to a couple of minutes. I have gone through all the troubleshooting steps on the vmware website to no avail.

Right now I have disabled the firewall both on the client machine and on ESXi itself so there is nothing in between them. The cables are working, the router is working, the drivers are installed etc.

Has this happened to anybody else? I am hoping somebody can point me in the right direction here.

When I say that the host is disconnected, I mean that it is disconnected from the local network, so my vSphere client cannot connect to it anymore. The only way to "solve" this is to reboot the server on which ESXi is installed on. Only to see it disconnect after another minute, that is.

Solution

Ok, I found a temporary solution (it's been working so far so I thought it might be worth posting).

My NIC uses the Realtek 8111G drivers, which are not supported by ESXi. Installing the 8168 or the 8169 drivers did not work (meaning that the NIC was recognized, but it kept disconnecting).

I found a post on the vmware community forum in which a user suggested to leave the gateway field of the host empty. I don't know if it will last long, but at least the situation is much better than before.

Comments

[Josh]

Have you tried just re-installing ESXi from scratch?

[user1301428]

@JoshR Let me try that too, i'll do it right now

[joeqwerty]

What do you specifically mean when you say that it's disconnecting? Do you mean that your vSphere client is disconnecting from the host? Do you mean that your vCenter server (if you have one) is showing the host as disconnected? Do you mean that the host loses it's network connection? Details, please.

[user1301428]

@joeqwerty You're right, question updated, I should have clarified better. I have read so many posts online about this that I gave this information for granted :D

[user1301428]

@JoshR I have tried installing version 5.5 from scratch (hoping it might be a bug in 5.1) but I still see the same behavior..

[Sebb]

This makes it more difficult. When it's disconnected, is the service interface (the ui at the server) still able to ping something and what ip does it show?

[user1301428]

No, the machine was not pingable and it could not ping either, not even a gateway. I found a solution though, see my answer, but thanks for the suggestion!

[Sebb]

Goood luck for your further experiments ;)