just an update on this, appears to be a bug specific to my system with esxi 8
any vm's active after the 3rd won't get network connectivity
vm1. truenas core - network ok
vm2. debian w/portainer running vdsm - network ok
vm3. dva1622 - network ok
vm4. dva1622 - no network connectivity
confirmed by staggering the vm's startup, first the two tcrp's, then truenas, then debian
first 3 will have connectivity and the debian vm won't have any even after setting a static ip