When I am troubleshooting I like to have a list of items I can check for either in my head or on paper. Amongst the knowledge base articles of VMware, I found an article about troubleshooting VMs that are having network connection issues.

The article is provides items you can check for when a VM is having connection issues. And with each item they are giving a link to other helpful articles.

Some of the items they advise you to check are:

  • Check if the virtual network adapter is present and connected;
  • Are the network settings within the guest operating system alright;
  • Check the speed and duplex settings on the network interface(s) and switch ports.
  • After a P2V check if there are no hidden network interfaces (this would by a item I could forget :) )
  • Are there enough ports free on the vSwitch for the VM in question.
  • Check if there isn’t a problem, check if IPSec if beeing used by the VM.

The article can be found here

Another issue that might cause your VM’s not have a proper connection is mentioned in a separate article , which is routing. It is possible that with multiple network cards the routing table of a VM isn’t correctly configured. In the article you can find how to check the routing table and correct it.

For me this is one more list I can add to my own knowledgebase for future referance, hopefully it can help you out to :)