Microsoft released a patch that appears to remove the IP addresses.

Microsoft released a patch that appears to remove the IP address from Windows Server 2008 R2 and 7 VM’s using the VMXNET3 Adapters.

It seems that the latest MS patches ate my vmxnet3 adapters on Windows 2008R2 :(. Any one else?#WindowsUpdates #Windows2008R2 #VMware pic.twitter.com/fsOwTo2VVx

— Wouter Hindriks (@Sikorsky78) March 14, 2018

Virtual machines with VMXNET3 adapters running the following Operating Systems:

Windows 2008 R2Windows 7

Patches potentially impacting:

KB4088875

https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/4088875/windows-7-update-kb4088875

KB4088878

https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/4088878/windows-7-update-kb4088878

External thread(s):

https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/84cw3n/kb4088875kb4088878_and_vmxnet3/

http://news.softpedia.com/news/windows-7-monthly-rollup-update-kb4088875-causes-network-adapter-issues-520245.shtml

This is not a VMware issue, it’s something within the Microsoft patch.

Potential fix/workaround:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3125574/convenience-rollup-update-for-windows-7-sp1-and-windows-server-2008-r2