ESXi – set vmnic back to autonegotiating

Useful when you lost access if you forcibly set speed duplex for vmnic instead of recommended by ESXi which doesn’t support manually set speed duplex because of bad RJ-45 cable type or switch.

  • Open ESXi console, press F2 and enter root credentials
  • Open Troubleshooting Options > Enable ESXi Shell
  • Press ALT+F1 to enter ESXi Shell
  • Enter root credentials and list all vmnic and enable Autonegotiating byt switch -a, after set vmnic UP
esxcli network nic list
esxcli network nic set -n vmnic0 -a
esxcli network nic up -n vmnic0
  • To enter back ESXi console press ALT+F2
  • TIP: you can look into vmkernel.log and search for Uplink keyword when you have some problem with vmnic.

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