Guest/Host Ethernet Access

[Albany1]

Hello All,

Thankyou for taking the time to read this.

Firstly I want to say that I am new to VMWARE as I have inherited this setup. I have ESX 4.0 running a Window 2008 Guest OS.

In the recent past I have been able to connect vSphere client to to the Host using the hosts IP address and connected to the guest OS (sharing, Remote dsktop, domain login etc) using the Guest IP address. Both going to the PC down the same cable as only one NIC configured. However today I was unable to gaing access to the Host using vSphere, ping or the web interface (to download utils). So having no real idea where to begin and taking the easy option I rebooted guest and Host. On rebot I was able to get access to the host using ping, Web and client. But, when the guest started - clients were unable to contact the Server and the server was unable to ping anything other than itself.

What I found is that after a reboot if I do not connect using the vSphere client the guest OS has use of the NIC and vice versa.

If anyone has any ideas where to start, I would appreciate it. FYI there are 5 other etherports (unused) on the PC.

Regards

Tom

[lvaibhavt]

Hi Tom,

Start with the basics; if you are not able to connect today then did something happened recently

Are you able to connect to the Virtual Center (if the host is connected to it)?

Are you able to connect directly to the Host via VI client? If no -- then what is the error

Are you able to putty to the Host? If yes then check the network settings from command line

Thanks

[gretton]

Thanks lvaibhavt for the reply,

I have been offsite so apologies I haven't got back to you sooner.

"Start with the basics; if you are not able to connect today then did something happened recently"

- Not to my knowledge

"Are you able to connect to the Virtual Center (if the host is connected to it)?

Are you able to connect directly to the Host via VI client? If no -- then what is the error"

- Apologies I do not know the difference between these 2 options. Could you expand a little on the Virtual Centre question.  I am using the VSphere Client and get the following error in the log

[        :startup ] 2012-10-25 11:23:26.497  Log for vSphere Client Launcher, pid=2744, version=4.0.0, build=build-496403, option=release

[        :Error   ] 2012-10-25 11:23:59.370  Error retrieving clients.xml

System.Net.WebException: Unable to connect to the remote server

Server stack trace:

   at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetResponse()

Exception rethrown at [0]:

   at VpxClient.Login.ClientsXmlLoader.TryDownloadAllPorts(Exception& activeError)

   at VpxClient.Login.ClientsXmlLoader.Download(Object obj)

System.Net.Sockets.SocketException: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond 192.168.10.107:443

...

   at System.Net.ServicePoint.ConnectSocketInternal(Boolean connectFailure, Socket s4, Socket s6, Socket& socket, IPAddress& address, ConnectSocketState state, IAsyncResult asyncResult, Int32 timeout, Exception& exception)

   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---

"Are you able to putty to the Host? If yes then check the network settings from command line"

- I am unable to connect using Putty (SSH) or any of the other options (tried just in case)

[gretton]

I have just re-read my original question - and it must have been a long day - as it makes lttle sense to me and I know what the fault is. So I shall try and explain again.

I have an esx 4.0 Host running 1 x GuestOS - Windows 2008 Server (domain server).

With the host and guest up and running all the 2008 client PC's , printer etc run ok. But I do not have any access to the Host (other than sitting at the Server itselfand  using the CLI).

If, say, I reboot the host - and BEFORE - the Guest has started I can access the host in anyway I like. However when the guest starts NO client in the 2008 Domain can access the 2008 server, and the 2008 server can not access anything on the LAN.

If I reboot the host again - leave it to boot up - wait for the guest os to boot - all is okay for the 2008 Domain clients and 2008 Server - but I am back to not being able to access the host.

I hope that is a bit more clear - in case the original post was not.

Thanks again

[a_p_]

Is the host connected to a managed physical switch? Maybe the switch port is configured for port security (the default on some switches) which limits the number of MAC addresses on this port.

André

[gretton]

I'll check in to this. But as there is only 1 Physical NIC in use for host and guest, is there only one MAC address, or does VMWare create virtual MAC addresses depending on the requirements you configure for each VM?

The port,switch, NIC config hasn't changed so I imagine this is unlikely to be the cause, but I will double check.

Thanks for your suggestion

[a_p_]

The Management Network as well as each VM's virtual NICs have their own MAC addresses.

André