Can you post your network setup from your esxi host showing us these devices on the port group on the same switch, etc.
As to not being able ping - software firewalls come to mind, many even the windows one block ping by default. Are they on the same network, wrong netmask can screw you up
Are you trying to ping via name or IP? Ping by IP, if does not answer look in the arp table of the pinging machine - does it show the mac of the IP your trying to ping? If not then yeah you have a bit of a problem, never going to ping if can not arp for the mac. If shows a mac, is the mac correct for the IP your trying to ping.
I would assume your on windows vms? You can view your arp table with arp -a
example
C:\Windows\system32>arp -a
Interface: 192.168.1.100 --- 0xc
Internet Address Physical Address Type
192.168.1.7 00-0c-29-dd-02-ba dynamic
192.168.1.8 00-0c-29-57-41-d5 dynamic
192.168.1.25 00-13-b6-02-6c-09 dynamic
192.168.1.31 b8-27-eb-1c-6e-09 dynamic
192.168.1.40 2c-76-8a-ad-f6-56 dynamic
192.168.1.50 00-15-99-21-1c-a0 dynamic
192.168.1.99 00-06-dc-43-ad-78 dynamic
192.168.1.206 00-22-5f-90-a3-a2 dynamic
192.168.1.214 00-0c-29-ff-f4-2b dynamic
192.168.1.253 00-50-56-00-00-02 dynamic
192.168.1.255 ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff static
224.0.0.251 01-00-5e-00-00-fb static
239.255.255.250 01-00-5e-7f-ff-fa static
255.255.255.255 ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff static
C:\Windows\system32>