ESXI 4 Internet/Network connectivity issue with one guest

[senseless]

I've been working on this now for a couple hours and I cant seem to figure out what is going on. I'm running ESXI 4.0 on an x3230 with an intel 1000 inside of it. Currently there are 4 guests operating systems installed. 3 are centos 5.3 (64bit) and the new one (the one that doesnt work) is windows xp (32bit).

I've got a /29 assigned to the host so I can give each vm a primary ip then static route secondary subnets to the primary ip. The IP addresses I'm assigning are fully routed internet IPs, not local lan addresses, if that makes a difference.

3.4.5.192 = network

3.4.5.193 = gateway

3.4.5.194 = vm1

3.4.5.195 = vm2

3.4.5.196 = vm3

3.4.5.197 = broken xp guest installation

3.4.5.199 = broadcast

I've setup publicly routed internet blocks before and never had an issue. I checked the host logs, found nothing. ipconfig /all looks ok, proper dns/gateway/subnet/etc. The driver for the VM network card (AMD PCNET) is installed, appears to be running properly. It's connected onto the VM switch just like my other vms.

I'm at a loss of what I should do next to trouble shoot. Are there any issues with running 32bit windows on the same host as 64 bit linux? Does anyone have any ideas what may be the issue? I searched google for similar situations but found nothing useful.

Does anyone have a 64bit linux guest running along side of a 32bit windows guest successfully ?

[J1mbo]

Firstly, what adapter type have you assigned to the VM, and is it connected? Is it connected to the right vSwitch?

Second, use exactly the same troubleshooting as you would for physical. What's the MAC? Can you ping the dg? Does it reply with the MAC you're expecting? Can the dg ping it? If you install a traffic sniffer (i.e. MS Network Monitor 3.3), do you see any traffic? Also useful to ping other VMs on the same vSwitch, to eliminate the external network.

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[senseless]

The adapter type is 'flexible' the default selection for the VM. There's only one vswitch on my setup, and it is connected to it. The adapter inside of windows says its connected, i checked out the routing table and everything looks identical to my linux installations.

Cannot ping the following:

Any other VMS

Network Gateway

Host node

anything on the internet

I'm not sure what your acronym 'DG'?

All of the other VMs connected to the switch operate as expected, no connectivity issues.

The mac address is default, picked up during my base install of XP: 00-0C-29-39-3D-5F which is not shared by any other VM on the vswitch

It really makes me think that theres something wrong inside of xp since it cant even ping the other VMs. But what could be the issue i've got no idea. I was thinking about trying to install vista or something to that affect. Maybe XP is too retro?

I currently dont have anyway to get software to the vm to be installed without it being in ISO format to be mounted by the virtual cdrom. So, packet sniffing may shed some light, but I'm unable to do it at this point.

[J1mbo]

DG - default gateway.

Have you installed the vmtools on it yet?

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[senseless]

I have not yet installed the vmware tools. I will package these up along with a packet sniffer into an iso and see what information it can provide. I thank you much for your continuing assistance.

I've noticed a lot of users have windows running in their vms (including xp) without issue. Is it possible there is an issue with running 32 bit windows next to 64 bit linux vms? Do you think I might have better luck with 64 bit XP or 64 bit vista?

[J1mbo]

I don't think so, but you do need to install the vmware tools. There's no need to package anything, just select VM, Guest, Install/Upgrade VM tools from the menu in the console window.

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[senseless]

I installed the vmware tools, it made the terminal a little more usable from where im located in relation to the server.. But the network connectivity issue is still there.

Is there anything I should do, or be looking for inside the tools? I see some log/performance charts but nothing much by way of network. Under devices it has a check mark next to NIC1 which I assume is the virtual nic.

[J1mbo]

It's really odd. I hope I won't offend you but have you definitely checked that the network is connected, i.e.

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[senseless]

Yes, it's definitely connected. I give up, I'm going to try XP 64bit and if that doesn't work Vista 64bit.

Thank you for your help. I'll report my results.

[DSTAVERT]

I don't think that is your issue. I think you may be asking ESXi to do some routing which it will not do. Post a screenshot of your setup and label the network addresses, masks etc.

[senseless]

My IP address usage was in the first post:

3.4.5.192 = network

3.4.5.193 = gateway

3.4.5.194 = vm1

3.4.5.195 = vm2

3.4.5.196 = vm3

3.4.5.197 = broken xp guest installation

3.4.5.198 = unused ip

3.4.5.199 = broadcast

The information is the same for all 4 vms, the 3 linux vms run fine on the setup. I have confirmed the broadcast, subnet, and ip addresses are correct across all platforms. The host's ip address resides on a different class c.

[J1mbo]

And your mask is 255.255.255.248 presumably?

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[senseless]

Correct 255.255.255.248 on all 4 vms

[J1mbo]

It's not a digit transposition error (i.e. 3.5.4.197) or, assuming you've masked the 1st three octets, digit transposition within an octet?

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[senseless]

Correct, I just masked them before posting. The real ips are within a valid range. I don't know what you mean by digit transposition?

[J1mbo · Accepted solution]

Say you meant to enter

192.168.252.197

but in fact you entered

192.186.252.197

Easy done

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[senseless]

Wow, I feel like an idiot I had 78 instead of 74 as the class A. It was hard to see on the screen.

Thanks for making me double check my basics.

[J1mbo]

Lol, at least it's sorted -we've all been there!

Plus full marks to DSTAVERT for figuring it out

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