Inoperable network for Autostarted Shared VMs - Workstation Pro 12

[_Royce_]

My shared NT4 VM set to Autostart has an issue with the network (AMD PCNet Family Ethernet Adapter) not properly loading on boot.

IP address is correctly statically assigned, but I cannot ping in or out after startup.

Restarting the VM does not resolve the issue.

Shutting it down and then starting it up works fine. It's only the Auto-started instance that has a problem.

[_Royce_]

Update: Tried it with a freshly built NT4 Stand-alone Server + SP6a + VMTools and the problem persists.

So it's not a ghost NIC driver or anything like that.

[wila]

Hi,

A couple of things to try.

Try using a less legacy device and driver with NT4 eg. the intel e1000

See: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1017903

Another thing you can try is setting the virtual hardware on the virtual machine to a version that matches the age of the machine a bit better, like vHW4 instead of vHW12

--

Wil

[_Royce_]

Thanks for the suggestions. Tried them both but it hasn't helped.

I've also been experimenting with a different startup script using Linux's init.d settings. That has exactly the same problem with the NIC and autostarted VMs.

I'm about to give up on Workstation and try something else. I wonder if Workstation Server would be any better?

[wila]

Hi,

Workstation Server? That's not a product AFAIK. I think you are referring to VMware Server?

Not that isn't better, the product has  been end of life for a few years.

I think you were using VMware Workstation 12? Yes you are using Workstation 12, sorry forum doesn't let me read previous messages and I managed not to look at the topic title.

Have you changed the settings on the virtual NIC for propagating the link state? Are you using NAT or Bridged?

Maybe the NIC on the host isn't up yet at the moment that your VM is getting an IP?

What might work better is VMware vSphere, but I'm not sure if that's an option as it is a different product altogether (your host can only run VMs in that case)

--

Wil

[_Royce_]

NAT works, Bridged doesn't - but I need to use Bridged. So it must have something to do with the Host NIC availability during boot.

Yes I meant VMware Server. I know it's EOL a while ago, but I thought NT4 is EOL even longer ago so perhaps it will work OK.

If I can't get Workstation Pro to work I will either have to consider vSphere or some other product.

Update:

Could the "pciSlotNumber = -1" setting in the .vmx file have something to do with it?

I have no idea why its set like that.

Update 2:

I got it working - I changed Bridged Networking to Custom and selected /dev/vmnet0. In the Virtual Networking Settings I changed vmnet0 to Bridged to eth0 instead of Automatic.

I don't really understand why this was necessary or why it works, but it does and I'm happy