I'm a developer that has been tasked with resolving performance issues on a VM server (bad pings, bad response times from IIS, sluggish remote connections, etc.). I know the VM is hosted on ESX but I don't have access to the host. I have access to the VM (Win2K3 Standard SP2) and I've noticed that the VMWare Accelerated AMD PCNet Adapter on the problematic server has only 3 properties whereas it has many properties on other VMs that work fine.
Present:
- MTU
- NetworkAddress
- TsoEnable
Missing:
- External PHY
- Full Duplex
- IEE 802.1p Tagging
- MP Mode
- TCP/IP Offload
- TP Mode
It was suggested to me by a friend, before I noticed the missing properties, that the VM Tools might have been corrupted and that I should re-install them. I also saw similar suggestions when googling the missing adapter properties.
My question:
Is it normal to have only 3 advanced properties for the PCNet adapter? Or is this a sign of corrupted tools that need to be reinstalled? Our infrastructure team is overburdened as it is and I want to be reasonably sure before I approach them to help us reinstall the tools.
Best Answer
You can't really fix this without ESX access, you won't know what version it is, what the vSwitch setup is, what the physical network architecture is - plus you won't be able to update/reinstall vmtools, change the vNIC type if beneficial, look at the network io stats.
Basically you're flying blind - just work with your ESX admin - he'll need help from you and you need help from him. It's pointless doing anything else.