the problem seems to be in the NIC driver.
https://communities.vmware.com/message/2313523
There are two reported fixes:
- Disable Receive-side scaling (MS article)
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On the virtual machine, open Device Manager (In Settings click Control Panel, and then click Device Manager).
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Expand Network adapters, right-click the network adapter you want to work with, and then click Properties.
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On the Advanced tab in the network adapter properties, locate the setting for Receive-side scaling and make sure it is disabled.
or use powershell:
Set-NetAdapterRSS -Name "AdapterName" -Enabled $False
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- Second option is to use vmxnet3 driver instead of the E1000E
- Inside the windows host OS make a note of all the NIC information (IP/ MASK/Gate/DNS etc.)
- Remove the old NIC using the vSphere console by editing the windows 2012 server host properties (if needed copy the old MAC address and after deleting the old NIC enter it to the properties of the new NIC)
- Using the VMWARE vSphere client edit the virtual machine and add new NIC card (make sure to select VMXNET3 as a adapter type).
- Edit the new NIC properties inside the windows 2012 server host OS with the previously noted information to make the new NIC be identical to the old one.
- Enable the new nic and restart the windows 2012 server
I found some people to report that turning OFF the Receive-side scaling didn’t help.
The second option seems to be a better choice since the new VMWARE VMXNET3 driver has a better design with many improvements.