New virtual machine, reboot, no network...

[tanmic]

So I've been given the task to figuring out an issue on why a virtual machine, whether it's one brought over from an older ESX server, or even a newly created VM using Win XP SP3, has issues with the network. (A bit of background - I'm not too familiar with ESX other than having the ability to create VMs, convert to templates and create machines from templates).

The issue is that when the machine is shutdown then powered back up, the virtual machine is not able to ping the network nor can we see the virtual machine if we try and ping it. If i go to vmware tools and disable nic 1 then re-enable it after a few seconds, then the machine can see the network and I can ping it. Reboot it, most of the time it works, but if I shut it down and restart it, we lose it again. I've tried everything from using a different NIC (vmxnet 2, vmxnet 3, flexible), uninstalling/installing vmware tools, etc and can't seem to resolve this. I've been told by the folks that has setup this environment, the network configuration on the backend is all okay.

The version ov vmware vcenter server is 4.0.0 build 20811. Version of the ESX is 4.0.0 build 236512. I do have a support case opened with vmware but not making any real progress at this time, so if anybody has suggestions on what to look for, let me know.

Thanks in advance...

Mike

[a_p_]

Mike,

this sounds like the physical switch port(s) has/have the spanning tree protocol enabled. Please make sure this is set to "Port Fast" (for Cisco) or however this is named for other vendors.

With spanning tree enabled, it may take a long time until the VM is be able to communicate over the network. If this time is too long, the VM (XP) might default to a "self DHCP" IP address and therefore will not be able to communicate.

To verify, you can try the following on your VM. After booting, wait for a minute, then - using the console connection - check the IP address using "ipconfig /all". If it's the wrong one, run" ipconfig /release" followed by "ipconfig /renew".

André

[tanmic]

Thanks I'll get somebody to check into that. Forgot to mention that there is no DHCP and that the IPs are manually setup.

[skippy1471]

Hi Mike,

I was wondering if you could help me? I am having exactly the same problem, did you ever manage to resolve it, and if so plese could you let me know what you had to do?

Thanks,

Dan