Vista - Setting up a VS network

Hi I am having problems trying to configure a Virtual Server set up.

I think what I am trying to do is quite unusal but i'm sure it should be
possible.

I have a demo laptop running Vista Business and have loaded virtual server.

I have created a virtual network called DemoNet and attached the physical
network card to this. I have configured the server 2k3 as a domain controler
called DemoDomain and would like to now connect a client to this domain all
on the laptop. I tryed to add the laptop that I am useing to the DemoDomain
however it could not find the DNS server even after I created alternative DNS
setting pointing straight at it.

I then started thinking that what I need is a new Local Area Network
connection on the laptop that is set up on DemoNet. However I can't find a
way of doing this through Vista. Anyone got any ideas?

Ok so I have made some progress with this, what I needed was a loop back
adapter configured on the host machine and to create a virtual network with
that.

This has got my V server, V Xp and the host vista enviroments all talking to
each other with out a network cable attached.

Next problem that I am having differculty with is that I can no longer get
either virtual machine to ping the default gateway properly.

I have added 2 network adapters on both the V xp and the V server box one
based on the loopback adapter of the hostmachine the other connecting
directly to the phisical network card of the host machine.

But not getting through to the internet at all maybe it's something to do
with ordering which adapter to try first or something....

anyone got any ideas>?

"AlexisColes" <AlexisColes@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:F2BB71A7-809A-4B3C-9BF6-0104905FC4EE@xxxxxxThis is a pretty common problem when people have never used a network
until they set up a virtual network. What you are seeing is normal behavior.
Setting up a domain and giving it Internet access is not straight-forward.

1. You should not run a domain controller on the same network as the
physical NIC. If you plug you laptop into a network to do a demo, that
network will see your DC and could cause havoc. You should not use your DC
as an Internet router (unless you are running SBS server).

2. With Active Directory, the client machines (and the DC itself) should
only point to the local DNS server. No other DNS server has the necessary
SRV records to find AD resources. If you have Internet access, you need to
set up this DNS server to forward to a public DNS service to resolve foreign
URLs.

3. The AD machines on the loopback network should be in their own IP subnet.
To use the Internet they need a NAT router to share the host's Internet
connection. If your laptop is running a client OS like Vista, the only
built-in option is ICS, and this does not work well with AD. You might need
third party NAT software. The setup would look like this.

Internet
|
public IP for Internet connection
host machine NAT
private IP on loopback adapter
192.168.21.254 dg blank
|
DC
192.168.21.1 dg 192.168.21.254
|
workstation(s)
192.168.21.x dg 192.168.21.254
dns 192.168.21.1


4. The best solution is to run a NAT router in a vm, but it requires enough
memory to run another vm and also you need to know how to set up NAT
software in RRAS (or Linux).

I run my AD setup on a virtual network with no connection to the host or
the physical network. This connects to the physical network through a vm
running Server 2003 as a NAT router. the setup looks like this.

Physical LAN (and thence to Internet)
|
______________________________
| |
10.1.1.99 dg 10.1.1.1 host and physical machines
RRAS/NAT 10.1.1.x
dg 10.1.1.1
192.168.21.254 dg blank
|
DC
192.168.21.1 dg 192.168.21.254
|
clients
192.168.21.x dg 192.168.21.254
DNS 192.168.21.1