We run several HP DL380 Gen8 servers as Windows 2012 R2 Hyper-V hosts.
Randomly, they stop responding on the customer NIC (ie the one connected to the virtual switch). Customers are disconnected from VMs.
Luckily we have found that we can get to the server via the management NIC okay and we simply disable/re-enable the customer NIC and all is well again.
This happens every few days and there seems to be no trigger.
I have ensured that the adapter drivers are the latest (v17.0.0.3 HP Ethernet 1Gb 4-port 331FLR / Broadcom NetXtreme).
Has anyone else experienced this? Could the cause be in the physical NIC, the driver or perhaps in the Hyper-V virtual switch?
Best Answer
Honestly, the short answer is that you need to switch to Intel nics. Broadcom has been trying to fix this problem for over a year and they still haven't licked it.
Avoid Networking Issues Hyper V
Virtual machines lose network connectivity when you use Broadcom
That second link brings you to a Microsoft site which will link you out again to driver pages that supposedly fix this problem. Speaking from personal experience, for what that's worth, it didn't work. We ended up buying Intel Nics and switching them on maintenance.