VM networking question

[Novik61]

Hi, all!

I have VM running on VMPlayer. Host – Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2. Guest – Windows Server 2008 SP2.

On guest running some multi-user application. Client for that application could be installed on any machine on office network. To make things more interesting, VM is a domain controller…

Is it possible to connect to WS2008 from “outside world”, meaning from any office computer? I’ve tried all available options in VMPlayer: bridged, NAT, “Host only” in order to ping WS2008 from non-host box and failed. From guest I can’t see any other computers on network either. My questions are:

1. Is it possible to have server as VM? And, if yes, how network has to be set up?
   
2. Should I establish trust between domains (Guest and office are on different domains, obviously!) or just add some accounts to the guest domain?
   
3. What are, in general, the rules to expose VM to outside world?
   

Thank you very much!

[RDPetruska]

1, 3.  If you want a VM to be accessible to other computers (whether virtual or physical), you should use Bridged networking mode.

2. Treat the VM exactly as you would a physical computer... so yes, you should establish a trust relationship (obviously there must be a connection first).

Does your host have more than one network adapter?  If so, you need to use the Virtual Network Editor (for some dumb reason, not installed by the Player 3.x installer), disable automatic bridging, and specify the physical NIC to bridge your VMs to.  Look through the forum for methods to install the Virtual Network Editor.

[Novik61]

Host system has only one NIC

I'll try bridged as you suggest

Thanks!

[WoodyZ]

If you need the Virtual Network Editor then...

To workaround the fact that the Virtual Network Editor is no longer installed by default, you can execute VMware-player-*.exe -e c:\vmptmp from a command line and then locate the c:\vmptmp\network.cab file and extract (double-click the .cab file) the vmnetcfg.exe (Virtual Network Editor) file to the VMware Player working directory usually "C:\Program Files\VMware Player" and then you can just delete the c:\vmptmp folder.  You can create a shortcut for it and place it with the VMware Player  shortcut if you want easier access to it.

Note: This utility is not installed  by default however is needed to disable automatic bridging on VMnet0 if  the system is multihomed and two or more Host Physical NIC's are active  or you want to change the Subnet Addresses of VMnet1 or VMnet8 or add  additional VMnets.