Failover or SureBackup starts a virtual machine with an incorrect Ethernet interface

When you back up/replicate/copy/clone a Windows 2008 R2 virtual machine with the VMXNET3 network adapter, the resulting virtual machine obtains a new NIC, and all network settings have to be adjusted manually.

The original VM:

The resulting VM:

When pinging the VM, a SureBackup job fails with the Destination host unreachable error, which can be seen in the SureBackup job log: 

[timestamp] <01> Error    [SureBackup] [Name] [PingTest] End 'Network adapter 1: IP address 'xxx.xx.xx.xxx', failed - destination host unreachable'

This is a Microsoft known issue described in the following KB article:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1020078.

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"During template deployment or cloning, new virtual hardware is created for the destination virtual machine. Network interfaces are assigned new MAC addresses. PCI Express devices, including the VMXNET3 virtual ethernet adapter, a new serial number is generated as well.

Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 7 track PCI devices by which slot the device is connected to. Moving a PCI network interface between slots will allocate a new set of settings for the NIC as it is considered a new device. Replacing a PCI network interface with the same make and model will retain use of the previous settings. However, PCI Express devices are tracked by their serial number, which is derived from the MAC address.

When a virtual machine is created by cloning or template deployment, the new virtual machine's PCI Express virtual network interfaces have different MAC addresses and serial numbers, and are detected as new devices.

The same behavior can be observed by deploying clones of Windows 2008 R2 or Windows 7 on new physical hardware with PCI Express network interfaces in the same slots."

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To resolve the issue for Windows 2008 R2 or Windows 7 versions prior to Service Pack 1, install the hotfix described in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article №2344941.

To resolve the issue for Windows 2008 R2 or Windows 7 versions post Service Pack 1,install the hotfix described in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article №2550978.

As a workaround, you can reconfigure the original machine to use the E1000 or other PCI network interface.