Hi and thanks for helping,

I am a student in windows server 2003 and must use vm ware to do labs. The machines are pre-configured with 3 LAC's. I can run 3 machines, on my home PC, and ping between each of the VM's. I do not understand how this works. On all All three machines I use NIC 2 (enabled) and all are on the same 192.168 network. An explanation of how VM accomplishes this feat would maybe answer my next question. Does VM Player act as a layer 3 switch, or a hub ?

One of my class topologies are as follows. The class Instructor is on a 10.10 network. Server A has 2 NIC's and connects to Server B through a hub. Server B is supposed to be on the 192.168 network. There is a wire in the diagram connecting the Instructor to server A, I assume a crossover cable.

I enabled LAC 1 on Instructor and server A; then I enabled LAC 2 on server A and Server B. I set the local IP address on LAC 1 to 10.10 and on LAC 2 as 192.168. A can ping B. I (instructor) can ping A, B cannot ping I.

My home router is on 192.168. I tried using 192.168 as the default gateway and got numerous errors and messages about not being able to have a default gateway on a different sub-net.

I was advised to enable routing and remote services on A and configuring it as a NAT.

This comes from Microsoft Press, 70-293 and my real instructor is too aloof to bother. Any feedback appreciated. Thanks, Geo

I have done this course and have the same setup in my home network. One of my Server 2003 boxes is running 7 VMs at the same time with no issues. Your VMs need to be using the physical box's IP address as the default gateway and your router as the DNS server.

The reason for having two separate NICs is purely for preference and additional access to networked resources, it's not a requirement from what I've found and I've been doing it this way for some time.

A program that really helps in this case is BG Info because it puts all the necessary information on the desktop of each machine, physical or VM so you can see at a glance what your IP settings are and if you need to change them to redirect to a different location, DNS server or whatnot.

Ok, I have a lot to say! First off, is this two completely setups? First you have 3 VM systems on your physical PC at home. Second where is this topology you outlined?Are you using Cisco's Packet Tracer, or is it in the book or what, it's not the 3 VM's on your home PC.

I will answer these qestions according to what I think, I could be wrong, I'll be corrected if I am. I have a similar setup at my house, but I use M$ VPC instead of VMware.

The reason you can ping among the three VM's is because each of the VM's aren't seen as virtual although they are. They're seen as separate systems on your LAN. Thus, you can ping amongst them.

As far as your second question, I am on the fence on this one. Since each VM uses the internet through your physical PC, it seems like your VM player/physical PC is acting like a switch but I think it just seems that way because you're running these machines off your physical PC.

Rick

VMware uses a virtual switch. It is typically Layer 2 compatible and is assigned a specific subnet. From your post above, you are specifying a 192.168 network.

Is this 16-bit or 24-bit network? Typically, 192.168.x networks are 24-bit.

Are the different networks (ie. virtual and physical) networks on the same network ID (see first question)?

Are you using the VMware server (free version) or workstation?

Chuckhole,

So does VPC (Virtual PC) work the same way as VMware, as far as the virtual switch goes? Like I told the OP it seems like it does but I wasn't for certain!