Hello,

I am not sure I am posting in the correct section but here goes.

We have a few servers that started running out of space on the C drive. After investigating we found that VMWare was still sending .dmp files every 5 minutes to the Default Users folder even though they had been converted to Hyper V long ago.

The servers are Windows Server2003, 64bit, SP2.

The only thing VMWare related item that I can still find on any of these servers is VMWare Tools. That service is disabled and the Tools software fails if I try to uninstall it.

I would like to remove/disable whatever is causing the dmp files to be created.

I am "assuming" it has something to do with the Tools but have not been able to figure much out by just Google searches.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Hi,

I have just completed a big migration to a new SAN and I have one file left that I cant move. Its obviosuly a swap file and it is locked preventing me from deleting it. I have reviewed the config on all my ESX servers and all my Guests and I cant find out what this file belongs to. And help would be appreciated.

This is the file -

Thanks

Will

Hi I am new to oracle. I have just started studying for my AD exam so decided to follow train signal and set up a network. I have 2 DC set up both speaking to one another and updating through active directory. I have now set up Vista client and it will not join the domain I get the following message

Note: This information is intended for a network administrator.  If you are not your network's administrator, notify the administrator that you received this information, which has been recorded in the file C:\Windows\debug\dcdiag.txt.

The following error occurred when DNS was queried for the service location (SRV) resource record used to locate an Active Directory Domain Controller for domain globomantics.com:

The error was: "This operation returned because the timeout period expired."
(error code 0x000005B4 ERROR_TIMEOUT)

The query was for the SRV record for _ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.globomantics.com

The DNS servers used by this computer for name resolution are not responding. This computer is configured to use DNS servers with the following IP addresses:

192.168.5.3
192.168.5.2

Verify that this computer is connected to the network, that these are the correct DNS server IP addresses, and that at least one of the DNS servers is running.

For more information on how to correct this problem, click Help.

I have been looking now for about 5 days and have tried every single answer solution I have found on the net but I get the same error, I have even tried a windows 7 client and have had the same result.

the 2 DC I have are set up as follows
NY-DC1
IP 192.168.5.2
default gateway 192.168.5.1
preferred DNS 192.168.5.2
alt DNS 192.168.5.3

NY-DC2
IP 192.168.5.3
default gateway 192.168.5.1
preferred DNS 192.168.5.2
alt DNS 192.168.5.3

client Wins Vista
preferred DNS 192.168.5.2
alt DNS 192.168.5.3
I am also getting a message now to update my Ethernet but have no idea how to get onto the internet from the VM. I have dropped the driver into the VBOX folder but it will not work. I have also installed Guest additions which I thought was the updated drivers.

this is becoming a pain can somebody help

Hi.

Experiencing problems with VmWare Server 2.0.1 and 2.0.2 on Windows Vista SP2, Core i7-920 computer.

It constantly crashing. I have browsed internet for solutions and have not found anything interesting. Suggested solutions with bad XML files at PrograData folder is not the case - I have checked all XML files there - all are valid.

Reinstalling VmWare Server did not help also. I did uninstalled it, cleaned up all VmWare files, reboot computer and then install again - no effect - vmware-hostd.exe still crashing.

Here is only the piece of lof file that I have found interesting:

Http Service started:

Starting statssvc plugin

PlmCollector initialized

Starting regular Collector

Plugin started

Plugin started

Loading authorization data from C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Server\hostd\authorization.xml

Failed to initialize: <Access is denied. >

Exception: Assert Failed: "success" @ d:/build/ob/bora-203138/bora/vim/hostd/vimsvc/vimsvc.cpp:202

Backtrace:

(backtraces not supported)

CoreDump: unable to create the dump file C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\VMware\vmware-hostd-7632-7384.dmp

As you can see - there is ref to *.DMP file but it does not exists on disk so I cannot analiyze it.

And seems every next attempt to restart VmWare Host Agent service could produde different errors. Here is another log example:

Error loading OEM link information. The system cannot find the path specified.

Patch uploading will fail because /tmp does not exist

soapPort: 8307

VM inventory configuration: C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Server\hostd\vmInventory.xml

error: Access is denied.

backtrace:

(backtraces not supported)

Win32 service stopped

Actually vmInventory.xml file does not exists but I think it should not be a problem because it VmWare have not installed it.

Any ideas - how to fix this problem?

Regards,

Dmitry.

vmWare Host Agent (vmware-hostd.exe) service allways hangs at startup on Windows Server 2003

Machine is an IBM Blade Server Windows Enterprise Server 2003 32 bit

vmware Server 2 installation was successfull.

all other vmware services start and stop properly (DHCP, NAT, Authorization Service, Web Access.

Machine is:

Intel Xeon CPU E5430 @ 2.66, 8GB RAM 2 CPU's 4 Cores per CPU

Machine has a SAN (Qlogic Fibre Channel LSI Adapter 3000 series 4-port with 1064E -StorPort

Machine has 2 usb devices attached:

  TEAC FD-05PUB USB Device (FDD)

  HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM GDR8082N USB Device (DVD ROM)

Reading logs seems something related to SCSI Address... or maybe related do CDROM.

Allways hangs at same point.

Tested detaching usb devices and starting service, service hangs at the same point.

Any idea or advice apreciated. Thanks id advance.

vmware-hostd.exe logs says:

Log for VMware Server, pid=1920, version=2.0.0, build=build-122956, option=Release, section=1

Current working directory: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Datos de programa\VMware\VMware Server

Trying blklistsvc

Trying cimsvc

Trying directorysvc

Trying hostsvc

Using netmap configuration file C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Datos de programa\VMware\VMware Server\netmap.conf

Active ftp is 1

Allowanyoui is 1

udptimeout is 30

VM autostart configuration: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Datos de programa\VMware\VMware Server\hostd\vmAutoStart.xml

Locale subsystem initialized from C:\Archivos de programa\VMware\VMware Server\locale\ with default locale en.

Resource pool instantiated

Refresh interval: 60 seconds

Plugin initialized

Trying httpnfcsvc

Trying internalsvc

Trying nfcsvc

Breakpoints disabled

Using system libcrypto, version 9070AF

Successfully loaded the diskLib library

File Services initialized fmgr()

Trying ovfmgrsvc

Trying partitionsvc

Trying proxysvc

Proxy config filepath is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Datos de programa\VMware\VMware Server\hostd\proxy.xml

Plugin initialized

Trying snmpsvc

Trying solo

Vmacore::InitSSL: doVersionCheck = false, handshakeTimeoutUs = 120000000

Initialized SSL context with version all

Host name: sase00760055.coremain.com

Compute resource instantiated

Environments file: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Datos de programa\VMware\VMware Server\hostd\environments.xml

Descriptor loaded: vmx-03

Options loaded

HostDeviceInfo: Failed to enumerate host parallel ports via the registry. Could not open device map parallel port registry key.

Failed to enumerate parallel devices

Descriptor loaded: vmx-04

Options loaded

HostDeviceInfo: Failed to enumerate host parallel ports via the registry. Could not open device map parallel port registry key.

Failed to enumerate parallel devices

Descriptor loaded: vmx-06

Options loaded

HostDeviceInfo: Failed to enumerate host parallel ports via the registry. Could not open device map parallel port registry key.

Failed to enumerate parallel devices

Descriptor loaded: vmx-07

Options loaded

HostDeviceInfo: Failed to enumerate host parallel ports via the registry. Could not open device map parallel port registry key.

Failed to enumerate parallel devices

Plugin initialized

Trying statssvc

Initializing statssvc plugin

Collection interval is 20 sec

Stats Depot has future timestamps. Discarding old statistics information

Reverting to default stats configuration

Trying supportsvc

Plugin initialized

Trying vcsvc

Trying vdisksvc

Trying vimsvc

Initializing vimsvc plugin

Local Domain : MARTE

IsWorkgroup: No

Local Machine: SASE00760055

Task retention time: 10

Cleanup time: 1

Maximum number of events: 1000

Vimsvc::HaLicenseManagerImpl::CheckAndSetEvalSource: skipped on this platform

Vimsvc::HaLicenseSourceImpl::LoadPseudoFeatures: skipped on this platform

Vimsvc::HaLicenseSourceImpl::Acquire: Attempting to acquire license for feature: vmwServer, need qty=1 licenses

Implement HostDeviceInfo_FindHostPciDevices

WMI_ConnectToWMI: Could not create namespace locator: 0x800401f0 0x00000000

Failed to connect to WMI

FetchSystemInfo: Could not get model of host.

FetchSystemInfo: Could not get vendor of host.

Could not parse host UUID 'f9bf592c-aabb-4ec5-a385-691c978e186e'

HOSTINFO: Seeing Intel CPU, numCoresPerCPU 4 numThreadsPerCore 1.

HOSTINFO: This machine has 2 physical CPUS, 8 total cores, and 8 logical CPUs.

Trying vmsvc

Foundry Init: setting up global state (1 threads)

Vix_InitializeGlobalState: Use Preference. vixLogLevel = 0

Vix_InitializeGlobalState: vixDebugPanicOnVixAssert = 0

Vix_InitializeGlobalState: vixLogRefcountOnFinalRelease = 0

HostDeviceInfo: Failed to enumerate host parallel ports via the registry. Could not open device map parallel port registry key.

HostDeviceInfoFindHostSCSIDevicesViaDosQuery: Could not get SCSI Address for device CdRom0

I'm trying to create a new VM and have started with this command

ovftool  untanble.ova vi://username:password@ESXhost

I've tried all sorts of options after the command but it always returns:

     Error: Curl error: Couldn't resolve host name

What does this mean?

Thanks,

Brian

Hello -- I am having an issue where the Tomcat Apache Web Service won't start on my server. I am running on a Windows Small Business Server 2011. It has Apache Tomcat 6 installed. By looking at the logging for the Apache I received the below output:

[2013-09-20 18:08:22] [1334 prunsrv.c] [debug] Procrun log initialized

[2013-09-20 18:08:22] [info] Procrun (2.0.3.0) started

[2013-09-20 18:08:22] [info] Running Service...

[2013-09-20 18:08:22] [1158 prunsrv.c] [debug] Inside ServiceMain...

[2013-09-20 18:08:22] [info] Starting service...

[2013-09-20 18:08:22] [1022 prunsrv.c] [error] Failed setting process executable

[2013-09-20 18:08:22] [1260 prunsrv.c] [error] ServiceStart returned 2

[2013-09-20 18:08:22] [info] Run service finished.

[2013-09-20 18:08:22] [info] Procrun finished.

I noticed that the Java options for the service show in the attached screenshot:

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I have been trying various options with the JVM, Classpath, and Java Options field.

Alternately, would you know of another way to manage virtual machines other than the web interface?

Thanks,

Firas Alnemer

I have instaled Vmware server 2.01 in Ubuntu 9.04 - Jaunty Jackalope, but  the virtual machines have problems to connect : "The network bridge on device vmnet0 is temporarily down because the

bridged Ethernet interface is down. The virtual machine may not be able

to communicate with the host or with other machines on your network".

When I try to config again the vmware with "sudo /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl", appears the next:

The following VMware kernel modules have been found on your system that were

not installed by the VMware Installer. 

Please remove them then run this installer again.

vmci

vmnet

vmmon

I.e. - 'rm /lib/modules/2.6.28-15-generic/misc/&lt;ModuleName&gt;.{o,ko}'

Execution aborted.

Thanks.

Hi,

I have a problem regarding snapshots in a virtual machine.

My server has the bellow  identity:

VMware Infrastructure Web AccessVersion 2.0.0Build 128374

VMware ServerVersion 2.0.1Build 156745

The virtual machine has two disks, one 140GB and one 65GB. My problem resides to the first one that included OS files too.

When I opened the folder of that disk, I found all these:

From a little search I did I found that there are some snapshots in that VM but here:

looks like there is no snapshot...

I tried stopping the machine and by using vmware-vdiskmanager.exe tool to merge all disk files to one (since no snapshots seems to exist) but the result when I used the new file, was a disk more that a year old.

Is there any way to merge all the old snapshots in order to create one disk file in the end?

Here are some more info:

file.vmsd content:

.encoding = "windows-1252"

snapshot.lastUID = "2"

snapshot.numSnapshots = "0"

snapshot.current = "0"

snapshot0.uid = "2"

snapshot0.filename = "COMPASS new sharepoint 2010-Snapshot2.vmsn"

snapshot0.displayName = "VMware Server Undopoint"

snapshot0.description = "Snapshot Description."

snapshot0.createTimeHigh = "315877"

snapshot0.createTimeLow = "-1914644888"

snapshot0.numDisks = "1"

snapshot0.disk0.fileName = "COMPASS new sharepoint 2010-000001.vmdk"

snapshot0.disk0.node = "scsi0:0"

snapshot0.disk1.fileName = "COMPASS new sharepoint 2010_3.vmdk"

snapshot0.disk1.node = "scsi0:1"

snapshot.needConsolidate = "TRUE"

snapshot0.type = "1"

file.vmxf content:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<Foundry>

<VM>

<VMId type="string">52 0e 7f 58 6d 3e b7 63-e0 64 e0 80 58 2f 38 ad</VMId>

<ClientMetaData>

<clientMetaDataAttributes/>

<HistoryEventList/></ClientMetaData>

<vmxPathName type="string">COMPASS new sharepoint 2010.vmx</vmxPathName></VM></Foundry>

file.vmx contents:

.encoding = "windows-1252"

config.version = "8"

virtualHW.version = "7"

floppy0.present = "FALSE"

mks.enable3d = "TRUE"

pciBridge0.present = "TRUE"

pciBridge4.present = "TRUE"

pciBridge4.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"

pciBridge4.functions = "8"

pciBridge5.present = "TRUE"

pciBridge5.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"

pciBridge5.functions = "8"

pciBridge6.present = "TRUE"

pciBridge6.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"

pciBridge6.functions = "8"

pciBridge7.present = "TRUE"

pciBridge7.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"

pciBridge7.functions = "8"

vmci0.present = "TRUE"

nvram = "COMPASS new sharepoint 2010.nvram"

virtualHW.productCompatibility = "hosted"

ft.secondary0.enabled = "TRUE"

tools.upgrade.policy = "useGlobal"

powerType.powerOff = "soft"

powerType.powerOn = "hard"

powerType.suspend = "hard"

powerType.reset = "soft"

displayName = "COMPASS new sharepoint 2010"

extendedConfigFile = "COMPASS new sharepoint 2010.vmxf"

numvcpus = "2"

scsi0.present = "TRUE"

scsi0.sharedBus = "none"

scsi0.virtualDev = "lsisas1068"

memsize = "4096"

scsi0:0.present = "TRUE"

scsi0:0.fileName = "COMPASS new sharepoint 2010-000002.vmdk"

scsi0:0.writeThrough = "TRUE"

ide1:0.present = "FALSE"

ide1:0.fileName = "F:\Sharepoint\Compass\Windows 2008 server R2-x64_<removed_product_id>.iso"

ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-image"

ide1:0.allowGuestConnectionControl = "FALSE"

ethernet0.present = "TRUE"

ethernet0.allowGuestConnectionControl = "FALSE"

ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"

ethernet0.features = "1"

ethernet0.wakeOnPcktRcv = "FALSE"

ethernet0.networkName = "VMnet3"

ethernet0.addressType = "generated"

usb.present = "TRUE"

ehci.present = "TRUE"

guestOS = "longhorn-64"

uuid.location = "56 4d 10 6b c3 c6 13 02-f4 24 f7 02 9f f7 e0 ff"

uuid.bios = "56 4d 10 6b c3 c6 13 02-f4 24 f7 02 9f f7 e0 ff"

vc.uuid = "52 6c 4e 1f 8a 99 31 ba-30 28 b7 5f fe 1e 91 45"

ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:f7:e0:ff"

scsi0:0.redo = ""

vmotion.checkpointFBSize = "134217728"

pciBridge0.pciSlotNumber = "17"

pciBridge4.pciSlotNumber = "21"

pciBridge5.pciSlotNumber = "22"

pciBridge6.pciSlotNumber = "23"

pciBridge7.pciSlotNumber = "24"

scsi0.pciSlotNumber = "160"

usb.pciSlotNumber = "32"

ethernet0.pciSlotNumber = "33"

ehci.pciSlotNumber = "34"

vmci0.pciSlotNumber = "35"

scsi0.sasWWID = "50 05 05 64 a6 b3 ee 50"

usb:0.present = "TRUE"

usb:1.present = "TRUE"

ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"

vmci0.id = "-1611144961"

tools.remindInstall = "TRUE"

usb:1.deviceType = "hub"

usb:0.deviceType = "mouse"

tools.syncTime = "FALSE"

scsi0:1.fileName = "E:\Compass_F\Compass_Backup_Disk.vmdk"

scsi0:1.mode = "persistent"

scsi0:1.present = "TRUE"

scsi0:1.redo = ""

scsi0:1.writeThrough = "TRUE"

Thanks in advance,

Argiris

Message was edited by: a.p. - Removed the Windows product ID from the mapped .iso file name

Hallo,

need HELP.

i had 3 virtual machines (1xW2k3 DC and 2xW2k3 as an virtual Cluster) with Virtual Server 1.05 on my Laptop (XP SP2) created.

USB functions great.

Then our IT installs Vista SP1 on my Laptop. OK....no problem i thought...what a great optimism.

On the new installed Laptop i install the new Vmware Server 1.07 and import the old with Virtual Server 1.05 created virtual machines.

But after connecting an USB-Drive i wasn´t able to connect the device in the virtual machine...it was greyed out.

After severel trys to reanimate it i decide to install VMware Server 2.0. But the same Problem. In the Remote Console i can see what type of USB-Drive is connected like "Sandisk USB-Massstorage", but the connect Button is greyed out.

The problem i see is, that on the hostsystem the "VMmware USB-Device"-Driver is not installed and the guest-Systems think that he is installed.

All attempts were in vain to install this driver manually on the Laptop (host-system).

Can anyone help me?

Thanks Juergen

I hope this is the right forum. I'll try to keep this as brief as possible. Please keep in mind that I basically know enough about vmware to be dangerous, but am by no means an expert.

I was asked by a client to set up a somewhat "failover backup". They are a small office with only one 2003 SBS. I found THIS SITE and suggested that we do that. Overall, the method worked pretty well.

However, upon booting up the VM (network adapters disconnected of course), I noticed that the three connections on the original box are named LAN, WAN, and BACKUP...all with static addresses. The three connections in the VM are called Local Area Connection, Local Area Connection 2, and Local Area Connection 3...all with default DHCP settings. When I booted down the original SBS and connected the VM, I could not connect to the network at all. When I went into the connections, renamed them, and assigned the appropriate IP settings, I got a message that a connection already exists with those settings, but is "hidden".

I discussed this with a colleague who had seen this before and told me to check HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\currentcontrolset\control\network\(the first key under that), and to remove the incorrect connections. I did this, rebooted, and now 2003 SBS is "stuck" on "preparing network connections".

I'm going to do a new p2v tonight and start over tomorrow, but I thought someone else might have more info before I start again in the morning.

Any suggestions?

As the title suggests, as soon as I install the vmware tools and reboot, the guest hangs on "Preparing network connections..."

If I let it sit for a long time (30 mins), I'll get a logon prompt, then another 20 mins to get to the desktop.

The guest boots in under 5 min prior to installing Tools.

This is a conversion from a physical box running fine.

I've tried (none work):

- installing tools without a network adapter in the guest

- booting in safe mode after tools

- extracting vmxnet3 driver from esx4 tools

- p2v from source

- cold image using BESR

- new VM, restore BESR backup

- non-destructive repair install after installing tools

- non-destructive repair before installing tools

Hello everyone,

I had a vmware image running Solaris and hosting Oracle 11g.  The actual image ran inside vmware server on a Windows Server 2003 server.

I had two folders (one for Oracle 10g and another for Oracle 11g).  I only needed the Oracle 11g image, so I deleted the Oracle 10g image.

I didn't know this, but the Oracle 10g image was somehow the base image for the Oracle 11g.  The Oracle 11g folder only had the SNAPSHOTS.

I deleted the based image.  There is absolutely no way to retrieve it.  During system maintenance I broke the raid and reformatted the drives.  So, again, there is no way to recover the Oracle 10g base image.

Does anyone know how I could mount the snapshot files to see if there is anything left that I can extract?  It would be a small win, if I can at least mount the snapshot, and retrieve a database dump out of it.

Any ideas?  I tried vmware-mount (from some toolkit), but it didnt mount.  Perhaps because it was looking for the base image.

Thanks!

Frank

I want Install window 7 or window xp Dual Os in single vm image

window 7 or window vista install successfully on vm ware server in one image like dual boot

but after install window 7 i have face the problem to installation window xp it show the error

setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer

please solve my problem

on the other hand if i install window xp first then install window 7 its work fine

but i want 1st window 7 then 2nd installation window xp

Windows 2003 Standard has a 4 cpu and 4 GB memory recognition limitation.  But when virtualizing a physical server that is running Windows 2003 Standard, would it be possible to allocate more than 4 processors and more than 4 GB memory and then do something, for example with a parameter to customize how the virtual machine is using processor count, memory, through the VM properties > General > Configuration Parameters > adding or editing existing params such as the cpuid.coresPerSocket ... ???  Simply setting the memory to 8 GBs on a Windows 2003 Standard virtual machine would simply be a waste of resources, yes?  Can anything be done from the virtual side to get over these 2003 Standard limits?

Everyone has their favorite list of performance tweaks for the old 1.0 Server product.  MemTrimRate, pshare, etc.

Has anyone applied these tweaks to the 2.0 product?  Do they still help with performance?  Do they even still exist as tweaks?

I posted this question back in the RC2 forums and nobody ever responded.  Is nobody interested in improving VM performance under 2.0?

Hi All,

Do you have any experience to use more than 4 GB memory by a 64 bit guest on a 32 bit host OS?

The host computer is Intel Core2 Duo T6600 CPU with 4 GB phy. RAM, but I want to upgrade to 8GB. The host OS is FC9 32 bit, 2.6.26 kernel, with PAE on.

I use several math applications and I am thinking on to upgrade to VMWare Server 2.0 if I can use that benefits. I do not have time to reinstall the host os and use 64 bit now...Unfortunately I have not found any info about this subject in the docs.

Any infos and suggestions are welcome!

Kind regards,

Paul

Okay, I am getting a replacment for my little 4 core 1U machine that I have run for the last 18 months and getting a large 16 core 48G machine, and now I have to figure out how to best utilize it.  Here is the issue, and I am interested in what people think. 

The machine is supported with ESXi (in fact could have been purchased with it preinstalled) and comes with 500+G of SAS storage.  The virtual machines I am moving however are on VMware Server 2.0 RC 1, which means I will have to rebuild all them as they are HW Type 7, which isn't supported on ESXi.  I have 14 virtual machines today, and this represents several weeks of rebuilding if I have to start from ground zero.  Understand that the new server was sort of a surprise to me, I thought I was just going to be geting 2 more 1U pancake servers, so I hadn't been planning for this change. 

The PROs for ESXi is the performance characteristics and bare metal install, but the big CON for ESXi is I have no Windows in my arsenal.  My two workstations are pure Linux machines, 13 of the 14 virtual machines are Linux and the 1 Windows virtual machine is fully taxed and belongs to another team who will likely be taking their license when their project ends.  I have no money to buy additional licenses but may be able to get buy with a trial license till the beginning of the year when I may be able to acquire a Windows license.  I know that next year some time VMware is supposed to have a control center for Linux for ESX, but I have to do something this year and would hate to have to do it twice.

Does it really make that much difference in performance, given that I am going from 4 cores to 16 cores, to jump to ESXi find a way to wrangle up the Windows license to manage it temporarily until the Linx client comes along and I can hopefully hook that into IBM System Director (the literature on IBM System Director seems to indicate that I need the VMware console as well as IBM Director).  What do you all think?

I just did a fresh install of VMware 2.0 on a single core Athlon server using Fedora Core 9.  I have another FC9 server running vmware more stable then this though it still flakes out at times.

This new install howeever spurts out the NullPointerException: Operation failed. error pretty much all the time.

Also it hangs at "loading"  and I have to hit refresh.  Has anyone encountered this before?

I'm dual booting Fedora and Windows XP and setting up vmware server 2.0.0 122956 on both.

The following is my config:

Internet --- ADSL Modem --- vm_gw --- vmnet1 (host) --- vm_dhcp --- Wireless Router --- Laptops

There are two physical network adapters on my host.  On the VM that connects to the internet (vm_gw), i bridge one of the physical network adapters (as vmnet0) to dialup to the ADSL modem, and setup a hostonly network (vmnet1) to share the VM's internet connection to the host and the other VM (vm_dhcp).  On the VM that further shares the internet connection to a wireless network (vm_dhcp), i bridge the other physical network adapters (as vmnet2) to connect to a wireless router (in AP mode) and have a DHCP server setup on it, and setup a hostonly network (vmnet1) to get its internet connection from vm_gw.

I have setup proper routing on my host and both VMs and this config works fine on my Fedora host.  However, the DHCP part of the setup does not work on my Windows XP host.

The difference between my Fedora and XP host is that on the Fedora host, I can have the two physical network adapters enabled with an "empty" config (to use neither DHCP nor static) as in:

DEVICE=eth0

HWADDR=00:11:22:33:44:55

ONBOOT=yes

TYPE=Ethernet

and

DEVICE=eth1

HWADDR=55:44:33:22:11:00

ONBOOT=yes

TYPE=Ethernet

And there is no conflict on the physical network adapters between the host and the VMs.

However, on the XP host, I HAVE TO setup the physical network adapters to use either DHCP or static.

If I setup (on the XP host) the physical network adapter that bridge to vm_dhcp to use DHCP, it will get an IP address from the wireless router and the DHCP server on vm_dhcp doesn't seem to be able to "find" the wireless router and allocate an IP address to it.

Then I tried to setup the physical network adapter to use static IP (and assign a dummy IP to it e.g. 192.168.123.1/255.255.255.0) to see if it would work but it doesn't work either.

Then I also tried to "simulate" the "empty" network config on Fedora using regedit and delete the IP address (192.168.123.1/255.255.255.0) on the network config and it also doesn't work.

Well, I'm running out of ideas and I've come here as my last resort.  Any suggestion/discussion is welcome. 

Thanks for reading.

wlpl