How to setup Windows VM internet access?

[puckky]

I have 1 server with VMware ESXi 5 installed.

It has 1 physical NIC with 1 static IPv4 address.

I can connect to the host with vSphere Client and SSH.

It has 2 Windows (1 Windows XP, 1 Windows Server 2008) VM installed and running. They both have VMWare Tools installed.

I have no access to the physical switches or routers.

How do I setup the networking so the VMs can access the internet?

[a_p_]

Welcome to the Community,

I assume you are running a private network (e.g. 192.168.x.x) with ESXi connected to an unmanaged switch/router!?

Please provide some detail about the network configuration. A screen shot of the vSwitch (Configuration -> Network) as well as a screen shot of the ESXi host's network configuration (Configuration -> DNS and Routing). Also post the output of ipconfig /all for the two VMs.

André

[binarycode]

Hello I have the same exact issue as the orignal poster. Sorry if I'm taking over the thread.

Here is my vSwitch

Network Configuration

My Two ipconfig /all

[Linjo]

Binarycode, did you plugin the ESX server directly to your internet provider? Then you probably only get one ip-adress.

You need some kind of router between the internet and your private network, this could be a virtual machine but then you have some more work todo...

Do you have some kind of home router to use?

// Linjo

[binarycode]

I have no access of this server. This is a dedicated server I orderd from OVH.

[puckky]

My problem is the same except the server is an OVH test server in Canada.

binarycode, I have an OVH virtualized server running Citrix Xenserver. I paid extra for more IP addresses, binded them to virtual MAC addresses in OVH Manager, then set my virtual machines network adaptors to those MAC addresses.

[a_p_]

The IP address shown in the screen shot is an APIPA (Automatic Private IP Addressing) address, which Windows assigns if the client is configured as a DHCP client but did not receive an address from a DHCP server. If you do have other IP addresses you may need to configure static IP settings.

André

[puckky]

Thanks for the reply Andre.

I only have 1 IP address available for the whole machine. No extra IPs are available for the OVH test servers.

I have used VMWare Workstation and Oracle VirtualBox on local machines before and VMs just seemed to work with a 'network bridge' or something.

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

I'm afraid you won't be happy with ESXi with only a single IP address. What wshould work is a hosted solution like VMware Workstation. With this you can configure NAT networking for the VM's as well as port forwarding to be able to access the VMs externally.

André

[EddieA]

As Linjo said, you can run a virtual router/firewall, like pfSense, with it's WAN side connected to the real NIC, and it's LAN side a virtual switch that also serves your other VMs.

Cheers.

[binarycode]

So with pfSense I can create a vm from my ESX server and use it as a router? Then how would I connect that vm with the internet of my ESX server?

[a_p_]

As I mentioned before, this won't work with only a single IP address (which is in use for the Management Network). In order to setup another VM - e.g. pfSense - which needs access to the Internet, you need at least a second IP address.

André

[puckky]

Ok, the hosted virtual solution like VMWare Workstation is the way I will go forward. Thanks