Annoying VMWare networking issues

[Tyler Bahn]

Man, I'm really sick of the networking problems that this version of vmware has.

The scenario goes something like this:
1. wait for virtual machines to boot up
2. configure network settings
3. networking is not working right
4. double check network settings
5. still not working
6. triple check network settings
7. still not working
8. remember that vmware's networking is broken
9. restart vmware procs
10. wait for virtual machines to boot up
11. repeat steps 3 through 8
12. reboot windows box
13. maybe it's working (if not, repeat steps 3 through 12)
14. think about wasted hour
15. cry
16. post about frustration on the forum

sigh...

[Rich Simms]

Bummer! Which station?

[Tyler Bahn]

Station 09 in the CTC. It seems to happen periodically in class too. Usually stoping and then starting the vmware services does the trick, but it was particularly problematic for me on Saturday.

It seems to be an issue with DHCP, it's as if the vhost can't see the dhcp server.

[Tyler Bahn]

It happened to me again just now.
I'm working on lab x2 and was configuring sauron to install minicom, it got a dhcp address, but was unable to ping out. I then powered up frodo and was unable to obtain an IP address at all.

Restarting the vmware services did the trick first try this time.

[Tyler Bahn]

And its happening again.
I set celebrian up on the bridged network with a static ip so I could scp data to opus (to turn in my lab).
At first I was able to ping 172.30.4.1, but not cabrillo.edu.
After trouble shooting a bit more, I wasn't even able to ping 172.30.4.1 anymore.
I booted up frodo to see if I could connect that way, no go (couldn't get a dhcp address.

So this time I tried just restarting the vmware dhcp service (didn't work) and then just the vmware nat service (also didn't work).
I guess I'll power down all the vhosts and restart the vmware services again.

Has anyone else been having similar problems?

[marcromansky]

I only use my home lab. I used what ever the recommended VMware version is (is it 1.8?) on xp. I have never had the problem. It sounds like a horrible time waster.

[Rich Simms]

I've been porting labs using my home systems, then I use either CIS-Lab-01 or CIS-Lab-06 for testing labs. These systems have been reliable. They are all using VMWare Server 1.08.

I did see the DHCP failures at the beginning of the term when the DHCP pool of addresses kept running out. I shortened the lease time to recover from the Windows Systems being powered off before VM's could gracefully shut down.

I have seen in the connectivity issue that Tyler is getting in the past and rebooting the physical machine was the only way to fix it.

Has anyone noticed if this problem happens more or less at the CTC or the CIS Lab? The LAN cable from the switch in Room 2501 closet has a much longer run to the CTC than the other cable has to the CIS Lab.

Tyler, was it CIS-Lab-09 this time again or one of the other CTC systems?

[Rich Simms]

I found a big problem with CIS-Lab-09 in the CTC!

I checked the network connection in Windows and it had been reconfigured to use a static address of 172.30.4.105. That is the address being used by CIS-Lab-05 in the CIS Lab. All the CIS-Lab-XX systems are on the same segment so we had a duplicate IP address!

If your find other CIS-Lab-XX stations configured with static IP addresses, please change them back to DHCP. Sames goes for classroom PCs.

The reservations are assigned as follows:

Classroom PCs - StationXX gets 172.30.1.1XX
CTC and Lab PCs - CIS-Lab-XX gets 172.30.4.1XX

- Rich

[Tyler Bahn]

Hey thanks Rich!
I'm glad it was easy to fix.