Removing “ghost nic”
***UPDATE 14.03.2018***
During Microsoft patch Tuesday (14-03-2018), MS released a patch that tampered with the NIC within vmware. This is seen througout the World and has frustrated many admins. The fix is however very simple just follow the instructions i provided several years ago, regarding, what i call ghost NIC. This could happen during P2V migrations and during vmxnet3 updates.
The problem seems related to Windows Server 2008 R2 but maybe not limited to that version, I have however not seen it on Windows Server 2012 and above….
The fixes KB4088875 and KB4088878
.NET Framework 4.7.1 is also under suspicion.
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After P2V converting you might experience a message when you try to enter a new IP on your virtual nic stating that there is a IP conflict, this i caused by a so called hidden NIC, which contains you old IP settings.
The IP address XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX you have entered for this network adapter is already assigned to another adapter Name of adapter. Name of adapter is hidden from the network and Dial-up Connections folder because it is not physically in the computer or is a legacy adapter that is not working. If the same address is assigned to both adapters and they become active, only one of them will use this address. This may result in incorrect system configuration. Do you want to enter a different IP address for this adapter in the list of IP addresses in the advanced dialog box?
To remove this NIC follow this procedure
Click Start, click Run, type cmd.exe, and then press ENTER.
- Type set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1, and then press ENTER.
- Type Start DEVMGMT.MSC, and then press ENTER.
- Click View, and then click Show Hidden Devices.
- Expand the Network Adapterstree.
- Right-click the dimmed network adapter, and then click Uninstall.