VMware: Network Adapter Not Found After Windows Server 2012 Upgrade

The network adapter is not found after I have upgraded the Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter to Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter. For your information, the server is a virtual machine.

After I have gone through the VMware documentation, I have found that the network adapter VMXNET 2 ( Enhanced ) I have been using is not supported by Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter. Thus, I have to change the network adapter to VMXNET 3.


<<VMXNET 2 (Enhanced)>>
The VMXNET 2 adapter is based on the VMXNET adapter but provides some high-performance features commonly used on modern networks, such as jumbo frames and hardware offloads. This virtual network adapter is available only for some guest operating systems on ESXi/ESX 3.5 and later. Because operating system vendors do not provide built-in drivers for this card, you must install VMware Tools to have a driver for the VMXNET 2 network adapter available.

VMXNET 2 is supported only for a limited set of guest operating systems:

• 32- and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows 2003 and 2008 (Enterprise, Datacenter, and Standard Editions). Note: You can use enhanced VMXNET adapters with other versions of the Microsoft Windows 2003 operating system, but a workaround is required to enable the option in the VMware Infrastructure (VI) Client or vSphere Client. If Enhanced VMXNET is not offered as an option, see Enabling enhanced vmxnet adapters for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (1007195).
• 32-bit version of Microsoft Windows XP Professional
• 32- and 64-bit versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0
• 32- and 64-bit versions of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
• 64-bit versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0
• 64-bit versions of Ubuntu Linux

In ESX 3.5 Update 4 or higher, these guest operating systems are also supported:

• Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (32-bit)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (64-bit)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Web Edition
• Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003

* Note: Jumbo frames are not supported in the Solaris Guest OS for VMXNET 2.


<<VMXNET 3>>
The VMXNET 3 adapter is the next generation of a paravirtualized NIC designed for performance, and is not related to VMXNET or VMXNET 2. It offers all the features available in VMXNET 2, and adds several new features like multiqueue support (also known as Receive Side Scaling in Windows), IPv6 offloads, and MSI/MSI-X interrupt delivery. For information about the performance of VMXNET 3, see Performance Evaluation of VMXNET3 Virtual Network Device. Because operating system vendors do not provide built-in drivers for this card, you must install VMware Tools to have a driver for the VMXNET 3 network adapter available.

VMXNET 3 is supported only for virtual machines version 7 and later, with a limited set of guest operating systems:

• 32- and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows 7, XP, 2003, 2003 R2, 2008, 2008 R2, and Server 2012
• 32- and 64-bit versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0 and later
• 32- and 64-bit versions of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 and later
• 32- and 64-bit versions of Asianux 3 and later
• 32- and 64-bit versions of Debian 4
• 32- and 64-bit versions of Debian 5
• 32- and 64-bit versions of Debian 6
• 32- and 64-bit versions of Ubuntu 7.04 and later
• 32- and 64-bit versions of Sun Solaris 10 and later

* Notes:

• In ESXi/ESX 4.1 and earlier releases, jumbo frames are not supported in the Solaris Guest OS for VMXNET 2 and VMXNET 3. The feature is supported starting with ESXi 5.0 for VMXNET 3 only. For more information, see Enabling Jumbo Frames on the Solaris guest operating system (2012445).
• Fault Tolerance is not supported on a virtual machine configured with a VMXNET 3 vNIC in vSphere 4.0, but is fully supported on vSphere 4.1.
• Windows Server 2012 is supported with e1000, e1000e, and VMXNET 3 on ESXi 5.0 Update 1 or higher.

Reference:
1.  Available Network Adapters
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1001805