Help, please!! problem with enhanced vmxnet adapter and Exchange 2003 VM

[tom12010]

Hi,

I recently changed our Exchange Server 2003 VM's internal NIC from flexible to enhanced vmxnet, by using Scott Lowe's recommendation of modifying the *.vmx file after taking the server out of inventory.

I put the server back in inventory and rebooted....then went in throuh VIC and set a static IP on the new NIC's Local Connection 2, as it was called.

I keep getting this message from the server: The IP address you have entered for this network adapter is already assigned to another adapter 'VMware Accelerated PCNet Adapter," then it goes on to say that it is hidden from Network Connections because it is not physically in the computer and there can be network problems and would I like to assign another IP address...etc.

Picture is attached.

I already tried doing a repair of VMware Tools and it did install the vmxnet driver.

What should I do to banish the network confiict etc. -- it's causing people to not be able to use Outlook and disabling RDP etc.

Or how can I get rid of the AMD NIC reference?? I can't see it in Device Manager either...

Thank you!!

P.S. Web access to Exchange is behaving funny too -- sometimes messages come in sometimes they don't -- and a couple times: "HTTP/1.1 503 Service Unavailable" messages.

This all happened after changing the NIC type -- there was no indication anywhere that anything like this could happen.

VMX listing of the ethernet section, maybe the error is in the vmx file??

ethernet0.present = "true"

ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet"

ethernet0.features = "15"

ethernet0.wakeOnPcktRcv = "false"

ethernet0.networkName = "VM Network"

ethernet0.addressType = "vpx"

Only lines manually added were virtualDev and features.

Really need to get this solved...perhaps I should change it back to flexible??

Would I be better off using the VMware KB method of changing the NIC, which requires changing the OS description??

Message edited by tom12010 to add information

[NTurnbull]

Hi, go into device windows device manager and go up to view -> show hidden devices. You'll then be able to see the adaptor and remove it thereby removing the registry entries for the adaptor (IP addy) and you might have to reboot the vm prior to being able to assign that IP addy to another adaptor.

Thanks,

Neil

[tom12010]

This hidden devices method does not work, thank you...

[burdweiser · Accepted solution]

Try this too...

1. Select Start > Run.

2. Enter cmd.exe and press .

3. At the command prompt, run this command:

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

4. Enter Start DEVMGMT.MSC and press Enter.

5. Select View > Show Hidden Devices.

6. Expand the Network Adapters tree (select the plus sign next to the Network adapters entry)

7. Right-click the dimmed network adapter, and then select Uninstall.

8. Close the Device Manager.

[NTurnbull]

Do you mean that you do not see the old adaptor in device manager when you select view hidden devices or that after removing it you still cannot assign the old IP address to anoother card as the system thinks its still in use? If you still get the error try restarting the vm and then reboot it again. If the IP address is still in use then you'll find it in the registry under HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\TCPIP\Parameters\Interfaces\++ I would not start removing these sub keys directly as there are other cross referenced registry entires tied to the interface ID.

Thanks,

Neil

[tom12010]

Tried burdweiser's suggestion, I was able to uninstall the unwanted AMD device, then rebooted, but Outlook etc. is still not working....thank you...

Memory requirements are going crazy too...was not requiring more memory etc. before this....

[NTurnbull]

Both methods accomplish the same thing. After uninstalling the hidden device, have you rebooted the vm?

Thanks,

Neil

[tom12010]

Yes, I rebooted the VM and redid the procedure to display hidden devices, and the AMD does not appear any more...

I will try one more time configuring the NIC again...

Thank you...

[kastlr]

Hi,

you'll receive such notification damned often when changing the VM configuration.

I even saw this when we add an extra SCSI controller to a VM.

But you could simply ignore that message and force windows to assign the same IP address to the second (or third) NIC.

It works fine and I never remove the old components from the device manager.

Hope this helps a bit.

Greetings from Germany. (CET)

[Texiwill]

Hello,

MOved to Virtual Machine and Guest OS forum.

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009
====
Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.
Blue Gears and SearchVMware Pro Blogs -- Top Virtualization Security Links -- Virtualization Security Round Table Podcast

[msemon1]

I had problems withthe enhanced vmxnet driver on a couple of my servers. Ended up having to remove and install vmxnet. Not sure what is up with driver, however, I don't think it is ready for prime time.

Mike

[tom12010]

I marked burdweiser's answer correct because it solves the multiple NICs etc. etc. problems.

However the real cause of the problem was DNS.

None of the articles -- neither the KB nor Scott Lowe's article -- mentions that making this change not only creates a new NIC, but that it re-creates the new NIC with DHCP!!

I know this is basic networking, but it should still be mentioned regardless.

Furthermore, re-creating the NIC in this manner caused new DNS entries to be created on my DNS servers, which took me some time to figure out. Once DNS was cleaned out and properly set up so the servers had only 1 IP = 1 server setup, things came back to normal again.

[tom12010]

Thank you, I was in panic mode and did not realize your choice of forum would have been more appropriate.