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Table Of Contents
VMware Server User’s Guide
236 VMware, Inc.
Potential Issues with Host-Only Networking on a Linux Host
Thefollowingarecommonissuesyoumightencounterwhenyouareconfiguringa
hostonlynetwork.
DHCPD on the Linux Host Does Not Work After VMware Server
Installation
IfyouwererunningtheDHCPserverprogramdhcpdonyourmachinebefore
installingVMwareServer,itprobablywasconfiguredtorespondtoDHCPrequests
fromclientsonanynetworkinterfacepresentonthemachine.Whenhostonly
networkingisconfigured,anadditionalnetworkinterface,VMnet1,ismarked“up”
andavailable
foruse,anddhcpdmightnoticethis.
Insuchcases,somedhcpdimplementationsabortiftheirconfigurationfilesdonot
includeasubnetspecificationfortheinterfaceevenifdhcpdisnotsupposedto
respondtomessagesthatarrivethroughtheinterface.
Thebestsolutiontothisproblemis
toaddalineinthefollowingformattothedhcpd
configurationfile:
subnet <net>.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {}
<net>isthenetworknumberassignedtoyourhostonlynetworkforexample,
192.168.0.Thisconfigurationfileentryinformsdhcpdaboutthehostonlynetworkand
tellsitexplicitlynottorespondtoanyDHCPrequestsitseescomingfromit.
Analternativesolutionistoexplicitlystatetheset
ofnetworkinterfacesthatyouwant
dhcpdtolistentoeachtimeyoustarttheprogram.Forexample,ifyourmachinehas
oneEthernetinterface,eth0,theneachtimeyoustartdhcpd,listitonthecommand
line:
dhcpd eth0
Thiskeepsdhcpdfromprobingforallavailablenetworkinterfaces.
IftheabovesolutionsdonotworkforyourDHCPserverprogram,thenitlikelyisold.
YoucantryupgradingtoamorecurrentversionsuchastheDHCPsoftwareavailable
fromtheISCWebsiteatwww.isc.org.
DHCP and Dynamic Domain Name Service (DDNS)
DHCPcanbeusedtohandoutIPaddressesaswellasotherinformation,suchasthe
identityofahostrunninganameserverandthenearestrouterorgateway.TheDHCP
serverinVMwareServerdoesnotprovideameanstodynamicallyestablisha
relationshipbetweentheIPaddress
itassignsandaclient’sname(thatis,toupdatea
DNSserverusingDDNS).