So far, this is happening on 2 different Windows 2008 R2 servers on different hosts in different v5.5 clusters.
I can reboot these VMs all day and they always come back up on the network with no issues.
If I apply a Microsoft update (even one that doesn't require a reboot) and reboot, it comes up disconnected from the network.
When checking the NIC settings, everything looks normal. No missing IP addresses, no missing gateways.
I can't ping out from the VM either.
If I go into the OS and disable then re-enable the NIC, it comes back online.
If I clone the VM, the problem goes with the VM.
Here's what I've tried:
Upgraded VMware tools
Upgraded VM hardware version
Deleted VMXNET 3 Nic and re-added it
Switched to the e1000 Nic
Moved the VM to a new host (v6.0)
Rebooted the host
Beating the VM with a hammer
It's getting to be a pain because, with every monthly Microsoft patching, we have 2 VMs that we have to manually disable and re-enable the NIC.
Any thoughts?