Workstation 10 - unable to run multiple bridged guest

[scotydog775]

When I try to run multiple guest os with bridged networking Workstation will only connect 1 of the guest os to the network and the other(s) do not connect at all.

Is this expected behavior?

I am using a Windows 8 host and Server 2012 guest.

What I want is for all of the guest os to be able to see and be seen from the physical network.

Is this possible or am I running into a bug?

[RDPetruska]

Are these guests copies/clones of a first guest, or are they all unique installations?

[scotydog775]

These are completely separate installations from the ISO.

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

Is your host connected to a managed physical switch? Some switches come with port security enabled by default, which limits the number of MAC addresses allowed on a single port to two (i.e. the host plus one guest).

André

[scotydog775]

That does seem to be the issue.

We have Cisco Phones and when i take the phone out of the loop I can get 2 of the 3 servers connecting.

I have also tried moving my connection to another switch entirely and I can get all of the VMs up and running. So it would seem that it was the port security that was the issue.

We are having the switched reconfigured at the moment to remove the limit.

[muddin]

Right now both your cisco phone and guest are running well?

[scotydog775]

Yeah we have had to have the switched reconfigured to set a higher client limit on the port security with this limit set higher we are now able to run multiple bridged VMs.

The restriction on the switch was stopping the VM from seeing the network.

We have Cisco Catalyst Express 520 switches.

Both the Phone, host and guests are running as expected.

[pointer_00]

Hi,

I am facing a similar issue and there is no hard limitation on the switch. However, the second VM is cloned and its unable to get IP address..

[TommyFreddy]

Please check your IP address both of your guest. If you use bridge then you have to use same subnet IP address otherwise host will not connect each other.

SO check your IP address.

[scotydog775]

If you have cloned your machine make sure that you have changed the MAC address on one of them so your DHCP server is not trying to give the same IP to two different machines.

This has caught us out on a number of occasions....

[pointer_00]

Thanks a lot for your replies..

@Tommy.. Both my host and the first guest have IP addresses in the same subnet and they are able to reach each other too. The second guest does not get the IP address though.

@scoty

I suppose that the cloned VM always has a uniquely generated MAC address (and I verified it too by looking at the VM's -> Settings -> Network Adapter -> Advanced -> MAC Address).

So, both the VMs have different MAC addresses, so I think there is something else going on here..