I have VMWare Server installed on an HP ML350 G5 running Windows 2008 Server Enterprise 64-bit, with 28GB RAM and two 2.33Ghz Xeon processors. This server is also the active domain controller, running DNS and DHCP roles. Since the installation of VMWare, we have noticed intermittent network connection issues in which the host server and virtual servers will momentarily stop responding (a few seconds), and then return to working normally. This is easily exemplified by running a ping -t against the host or vmware machines and notice that approximately every 5 - 10 minutes the ping will time out for a couple of requests, then return correctly.
Thinking the issue may be with the NIC, I updated all drivers and also introduced another NIC to the host machine and moved the VMWare machines to this new card. I then noticed that traffic destined for the host on the original NIC (that no longer has traffic for VMWare), does not drop any ping requests. But the second NIC, with VMWare, has the same problem with dropping the connection. So the issue appears to only appear with VMWare utilizing the NIC.
I have run out of ideas to identify what is causing this problem and/or how to correct it. This installation is in a production environment, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!