ESXi6 and Pfsense 2.2.4 vmxnet3 issues

[PfMySense]

Hello there,

i ran into some weird problems when choosing vmxnet3 as the nic type for my virtual machines.
My pfSense VM on ESXi6 already contains 4xvmnic3 type nics and so far i couldnt figure out any problems. But as soon as i would like to add a 5th one (lets say for a dmz or whatever) i cant ping the vm from within pfsense nor the other way around.
As soon as i switch the nic type to e1000 on the other hand, everything works just fine.

There is definitely something strange going on there cause i tried to reinstall the whole pfsense vm and if i stay with only 4 vmxnet3 nics in my pfsense vm everything seems ok, but as soon as i add the 5th i get a mess. Lets say vmx0 corresponds to wan, vmx1 corresponds to lan, vmx2 to wifi and vmx3 to NAS.
When i activate the 5th vmxnet3 nic the order is totally f…. up and all of a sudden vmx1 corresponds to lan now and vmx0 to wan etc etc.

I worked around it by chossing e1000 for the 5th nic but now when i wanted to create a DMZ and figured out that i can`t even ping the machine from pfsense when selecting vmxnet3 it made me curious and i wanted to get to the bottom of this. Maybe you guys can help me out and point me in the right direction.
I am not using any OpenVM Tools cause pfsense 2.2 or to be precise FreeBSD 10.1 supports it out of the box right?

Regards and thanks in advance

Dennis

[tok]

Hi,

I also noticed an interface mix-up with my setup consisting of pfSense 2.2.4 with six vmxnet3 NICs on vSphere 6. Not completely sure, but I think it happend after adding the fifth NIC too…

However, I did not notice any ping issues.

Best regards

[velvir]

@PfMySense:

Hello there,

i ran into some weird problems when choosing vmxnet3 as the nic type for my virtual machines.
My pfSense VM on ESXi6 already contains 4xvmnic3 type nics and so far i couldnt figure out any problems. But as soon as i would like to add a 5th one (lets say for a dmz or whatever) i cant ping the vm from within pfsense nor the other way around.
As soon as i switch the nic type to e1000 on the other hand, everything works just fine.

There is definitely something strange going on there cause i tried to reinstall the whole pfsense vm and if i stay with only 4 vmxnet3 nics in my pfsense vm everything seems ok, but as soon as i add the 5th i get a mess. Lets say vmx0 corresponds to wan, vmx1 corresponds to lan, vmx2 to wifi and vmx3 to NAS.
When i activate the 5th vmxnet3 nic the order is totally f…. up and all of a sudden vmx1 corresponds to lan now and vmx0 to wan etc etc.

I worked around it by chossing e1000 for the 5th nic but now when i wanted to create a DMZ and figured out that i can`t even ping the machine from pfsense when selecting vmxnet3 it made me curious and i wanted to get to the bottom of this. Maybe you guys can help me out and point me in the right direction.
I am not using any OpenVM Tools cause pfsense 2.2 or to be precise FreeBSD 10.1 supports it out of the box right?

Regards and thanks in advance

Dennis

I am actually having this exact same problem right now  :-\

[cmb]

VMware's quirky with vmxnet3 NICs on newer versions if you add NICs later on. If you add one, you can end up reordering some or all of your other NICs (eg. vmx0 becomes vmx3). Make note of the MACs and associated NIC, then check the MACs in 'ifconfig' output after you power up the VM, then you can associate what their actual order is and re-assign the NICs accordingly.

[velvir]

@cmb:

VMware's quirky with vmxnet3 NICs on newer versions if you add NICs later on. If you add one, you can end up reordering some or all of your other NICs (eg. vmx0 becomes vmx3). Make note of the MACs and associated NIC, then check the MACs in 'ifconfig' output after you power up the VM, then you can associate what their actual order is and re-assign the NICs accordingly.

You're a genius and a life saver! Thank you so much! This completely fixed it  :)