Hello,
I have been trying to configure a small virtual network to run a domain controller and a member server, but am having no success when trying to add this member server to the domain controller (both running Windows 2003). Both Windows servers are connected to VMNet1 (host-only), and a third host that acts as a gateway is also connected to VMNet1, with its external interface bridged.
Both Windows machines can access the Internet; The member server is able to obtain an IP address from the domain controller via DHCP; When I try and add the server to the domain, I can see on a packet capture taken at the gateway host that the machines can communicate via TCP. However, I could see that all UDP-based requests from the member server are not picked up by the domain controller, hence the domain join operation fails (I can see some LDAP traffic between the two hosts).
I also noticed that on the ARP cache of each host, the MAC address of the other machine (that is supposedly on the same virtual switch) cannot be seen.
If anyone is familiar with configuring a working Windows domain inside a host-only network I would appreciate any pointers in the right direction, as I cannot see anything wrong with the configuration of either Windows machine. Also, the DHCP scope on the VMWare is disabled so there is no conflicting assignments.