Why my Host is (suddenly) ping unreachable from my Ubuntu VMWare (bridged) Guest ?

Question

Hi,

I am trying to set up a production environment for my grails application. So I have downloaded a VMWare Ubuntu image distribution (8.10) and I have installed Java/Groovy/Grails/Tomcat under this server.

Everything worked fine until the moment I needed to share some files with my host computer (Windows Vista - Firewall Disabled). The only way I found for this usage was to install an FTP server. It started working (succeeded to connect through FTP to my Host) but suddenly stopped and the host IP was not accessible anymore (even with Ping)

I'm stucked for at least 3 hours and I'm googling the internet for similar problems (I found some) and at least one solution (found none).

One last thing : I have another computer in my LAN network and it is reachable (at least with ping) by both the host and guest servers.

Do you have any idea?

Fabien.

PS: My configurations are below

ipconfig /all (from my Vista Host)

   Windows IP Configuration

   Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Noa
   Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
   Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
   IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Atheros AR5007EG Wireless Network Adapter
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-26-5E-73-5C-8D
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::291e:e9a7:4480:a915%17(Preferred)
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.30(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : samedi 5 décembre 2009 11:14:18
   Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : dimanche 6 décembre 2009 16:20:34
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
   DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 385885790
   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-11-79-9E-CC-00-13-77-B6-98-C7
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Marvell Yukon 88E8057 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-24-54-05-FB-A5
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Ethernet adapter VMware Network Adapter VMnet1:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for VMnet1
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-56-C0-00-01
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::90a1:f07c:6af7:aef3%22(Preferred)
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.130.1(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 469782614
   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-11-79-9E-CC-00-13-77-B6-98-C7
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1
                                       fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1
                                       fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Ethernet adapter VMware Network Adapter VMnet8:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for VMnet8
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-56-C0-00-08
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::2c24:56d2:bc42:be6%24(Preferred)
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.122.1(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 503337046
   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-11-79-9E-CC-00-13-77-B6-98-C7
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1
                                       fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1
                                       fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

route -n from Host (Vista)

===========================================================================
Interface List
 17 ...00 26 5e 73 5c 8d ...... Atheros AR5007EG Wireless Network Adapter
 12 ...00 24 54 05 fb a5 ...... Marvell Yukon 88E8057 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
 22 ...00 50 56 c0 00 01 ...... VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for VMnet1
 24 ...00 50 56 c0 00 08 ...... VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for VMnet8
  1 ........................... Software Loopback Interface 1
 20 ...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0  isatap.{32A6EE2B-60B7-472B-B4A3-8733C5A1DF83}
 23 ...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0  isatap.{CC559573-8FA2-41BE-A018-C341BDE771D6}
 18 ...02 00 54 55 4e 01 ...... Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
 19 ...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0  isatap.{FF9E8EA8-18CF-4C5E-8656-4498666D8EFE}
 25 ...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0  isatap.{E5511619-7DE6-4A1A-BA81-6DBFF17D4F65}
===========================================================================

IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination        Netmask          Gateway       Interface  Metric
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0      192.168.1.1     192.168.1.30     25
        127.0.0.0        255.0.0.0         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
        127.0.0.1  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
  127.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
      192.168.1.0    255.255.255.0         On-link      192.168.1.30    281
     192.168.1.30  255.255.255.255         On-link      192.168.1.30    281
    192.168.1.255  255.255.255.255         On-link      192.168.1.30    281
    192.168.122.0    255.255.255.0         On-link     192.168.122.1    276
    192.168.122.1  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.122.1    276
  192.168.122.255  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.122.1    276
    192.168.130.0    255.255.255.0         On-link     192.168.130.1    276
    192.168.130.1  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.130.1    276
  192.168.130.255  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.130.1    276
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link     192.168.130.1    276
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link     192.168.122.1    276
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link      192.168.1.30    281
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.130.1    276
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.122.1    276
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link      192.168.1.30    281
===========================================================================

ifconfig -a from Guest (Ubuntu)

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0c:29:b9:f6:c7  
          inet addr:192.168.1.22  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::20c:29ff:feb9:f6c7/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:57 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:63 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:7205 (7.2 KB)  TX bytes:7884 (7.8 KB)
          Interrupt:18 Base address:0x2024 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:265 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:265 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:17316 (17.3 KB)  TX bytes:17316 (17.3 KB)

`route- n` from Guest (Ubuntu) :

Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
192.168.1.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     1      0        0 eth1
169.254.0.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.0.0     U     1000   0        0 eth1
0.0.0.0         192.168.1.1     0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 eth1

Answer 1

Try add network adapters in VMWare using host mode or NAT mode and see if the network connections with those mode work.

I assume your existing vmware connection is bridge mode.

Also double check to make sure you don't have MAC, IP address conflict such as an identical instance of the vmWare running on other machine in the same network. Sniffer such as tcpdump, wireshark can sometime help debug these kind of issues.