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I’m a little new to VMWare, so it could be a simple mistake. I switched a VM server from trial to full version (2008R2), and then it lost network connection. I found the issue was that the VM host server has an internal IP address to the address I want. The guest VM is off, but it’s old IP address still responds, and nothing on our network has it. Is there a way I can see the NIC adapters and what is replying in the host itself.

Side note: I found online an article about ghost NIC adapters in the device manager, but there weren’t any there when I changed settings for them to be displayed.

@VMware

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I’m not sure this will help but they are procedures I use for removing ghost adapters from Windows OS. I’ve never had to add the Environment Variable mentioned at the bottom. You should run cmd.exe as admin though.

Click Start, click Run, type cmd.exe, and then press ENTER.

(Note-must run cmd.exe as administrator in Windows 7)

Type set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1, and then press ENTER.

Type Start DEVMGMT.MSC, and then press ENTER.

Click View, and then click Show Hidden Devices.

Expand the Network Adapters tree.

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

sometimes it still doesn’t show the hidden devices after this command line. In that case for xp, 2003, 2008 server do this.

You have to add devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices as a System variable in 2008.

right click Computer and choose properties then click Advanced System Settings.

Click the Environment Variables button.

Click New System Variable button (The bottom “new” button).

Variable name = devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices

Variable value = 1

Ok out of this and open device manager and enable hidden devices in the view menu.

This has worked every time for me in 2003 and 2008 use.

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Thanks for the reply, and I just tried that. There isn’t any grayed out adapter for me to remove from the device manager. Also, it’s still pinging back even when the guest server is turned off. I feel like it’s something in VMWare itself, but I’m not completely sure on that.

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Can you grab a screenshot of your ESXi host’s virtual network network settings, and post it here?

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make sure that the device manager isn’t open when you run the commands.

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Have you tried nslookup, to see what name is returned (if any)? It might just be an honest to goodness ip conflict elsewhere.

E.g. in command prompt:

nslookup 8.8.8.8

Returns:

Server:

Address: <Your DNS Server’s IP>

Name: google-public-dns-a.google.com

Address: 8.8.8.8

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So you are saying your ESXi server has got the IP address that the VM had beforehand?

If this is the case just change the ip address of the ESXi server from the console screen

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I can’t try the intrusive things now, but after hours I can (I already caused issues during work hours accidentally…). I think I may have had the device manager open when I tried, so I’ll try it again with it closed.

Now, the IP address of the host server is pinging back to the x.x.x.84 address (the one I want to use) even though that Guest server was turned off when i pinged it. I’ll double check nothing else is claiming to be that IP address. In the DHCP it’s in the reserved list, so it shouldn’t automatically be given out, but it could accidentally been set somewhere.

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Is the VMware host itself using that IP? Look on the console, or at your virtual network settings, to find out what IP the ESXi host is using:

vmnetwork.JPG

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This is what I could find. The host is using x.x.x.171, so the host itself isn’t using it. My co-worker thinks it could be a hidden virtual network adapter that’s responding to it, which I’m researching now how to see what guest IP addresses are on the Host machine.

Adapters.jpg

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If you do an arp -a at a command prompt, are you able to get the MAC address of the network card using the IP? Generally, virtual network adapters fall into very distinct ranges (unless someone has intentionally made changes).

Right now, you may simply want to start using traditional methods to track down what device is using that IP.

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I got this IP address when I ran arp -a on the IP address. I did some Googling, but I couldn’t find who this vendor is for the MAC. 00-0c-82-01-11-35

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I came back with this:

http://tools.springheadmedia.com/mac.php?m1=00&m2=0c&m3=82&m4=&m5=&m6=&find=Find

A very fast google lead me here:

Maybe a misconfigured device somewhere?

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Apparently I need to improve my Googling, thanks. I’ll look into NetworkTechInc and see where it leads me. I’m thinking I may even unplug the VMhost server (after hours) and see if it still replies back to a ping.

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So I went to the IP address and found it the culprit is our environment monitoring system in the server room. Thanks for the help, and now I know a lot more about how the networking works for VMWare.

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