Network issue on Guest VMs on Nested Hyper-V on ESXi 5.5

[AndrewTseng]

Virtualization Nesting is already complicated, now I hope my subject for this discussion is not too confusing.

Server: Dell PowerEdge R730 Dual E2640

• Outer Hypervisor: ESXi 5.5.0u2  (Dell customized image, pre-installed on server), 4 NICs (NIC0, NIC1 in use)
  • Management IP address 10.200.200.9/  subnet mask: 255.255.255.0 / gateway: 10.200.200.1

• Inner Hypervisor: Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter, using 2x E1000E virtual network adapters
  • IP address 10.200.200.10 (for OS)
  • IP address 10.200.200.11 (for Guest VMs)

Basically I followed the instruction to create a new VM with Virtual hardware version 10, modify the vmx file, allocate and reserve 64GB RAM with 8 vCPU for the Windows Server,

vhv.enable = “TRUE”

hypervisor.cpuid.v0 = “FALSE”

mce.enable = “TRUE”

At this stage everything works fine -- I am able to install the Windows server 2012 R2, with Hyper-V feature. I also installed VMware Tools on this Windows 2012 datacenter Hyper-V, joined domain, ran iSCSI to connect to our NAS and restarted the hyper-V without issues on ESXi.

But when I try to install a new guest VM within Hyper-V, the network is not working correctly.

I install a Windows 2012 Standard on Hyper-V (the inner hypervisor) without issue, and the guest OS gets an IP address of 10.200.200.86 (assigned by DHCP in the same subnet)

From this guest OS, I am able to ping it's 1st-layer Hyper-V host (10.200.200.10 and 10.200.200.11) and 2nd ESXi host (10.200.200.9), but unable to contact further to gateway (10.200.200.1).

And of course, I got an exclamation sign on the network icon of taskbar of this Windows 2012 Standard saying "no internet connection".

*I was still able to join this Guest Windows 2012 Std to domain.

**Existing on the same subnet is another Hyper-V on physical server hosting multiple guest VMs including Domain controller and DHCP servers, etc.

I did try using PCIe pass-through with Dell server's NIC3 , but it crashed the ESXi, and gave me an IERR error message (errors of CPU 1) on my Dell server front display.

I ended up not using PCIe pass-through (although I really want to use if this solve my issue), because I learned that it may cause problems with Intel CPUs from other discussion threads.

Has anyone also had similar issues? what did you do to resolve this? I have been stuck for days not being able to connect guest VM to internet ....

My goals for this setup are to

(1) simplify my VM backup strategy (only backup the 2012 Hyper-V to capture all VM settings)

(2) keep actual guest VMs on the NAS.

(3) use this new nested Hyper-V with another Hyper-V (on another older physical server, not nested) to provide high availability

Andrew

[rcporto · Accepted solution]

Have you enabled the Promiscuous Mode on vSwitch of your vSphere ESXi host ? Take a look here: http://vblog.is/?p=94

[AndrewTseng]

Thanks for the help. I was finally able to resolve this.

[enjoyjocel]

Hi,

I have exactly the same setup. I enabled as well promiscuous mode on the port group and vswitch. But still my nested VM guest isn't able to acquire an IP.

Any Idea?

Thanks!

[admin]

Have you also enabled MAC address changes and forged transmits on the vSwitch?

[enjoyjocel]

Thanks for your response, Jmattson. My apologies but I got misled by some terminologies on the post. My hypervisor installed on the physical machine is HyperV and guest OS in the HyperV is Esxi 5.5. The one I'm having trouble with is the guest OS on the esxi. It's not able to acquire an IP from my DHCP server. I guess I'm looking for a promiscuous-mode-equivalent to hyperv.

Thanks!

[admin]

Perhaps this will help: http://cloudbase.it/hyper-v-promiscuous-mode/

[enjoyjocel]

Hi,

That didn't work, either. Lots of articles point a solution to to add the promiscuous tags to .xml file. However, the solution is just simply enabling MAC address spoofing on HyperV vNIC.

Thanks jmattson!

Joe

[MalikNumanAkhta]

Enabling MAC Spoofing Still Hyper-V VM cant access IP/Internet