Connecting virtual PC to existing domain

[eric03]

Hello. I am new to the virtual PC world and am experimenting presently. Here is what I am trying to do. I have an existing domain running Windows 2003 server. Attached to the domain are clients running XP Professional. THese PC's have obviously gotten old. So I purchased a Dell Computer with windows 7 on it, and have loaded Virtual PC Box on it and created a virtual machine on it, used acronis to load an image of the XP machine, and got it to boot the virtual machine. To finish though, I need to be able to log this machine on to the domain using one of the existing machine IP addresses. I removed one of the existing clients from the domain, and then try to log on to it after configuring the IP addresses of the virtual PC to the same, but cannot connect. My question is do I have to configure something on the host machine, or am I going about something else wrong? Thanks for all the hlpe and be gentle of my ignorance.

[mpack]

"Virtual PC Box"?

"Virtual PC" is a different VM platform, a.k.a. "Windows XP Mode". VirtualBox is the name of the only software supported here - please confirm that is what you are using.

Also, we only support VirtualBox, we don't provide tuition on the infinite variety of things you can do on any PC including virtual PCs. E.g. I'm afraid that learning how to configure PC networks falls outside the scope of what we do here. You should Google for general networking advice if that's what you need. We can then advise how to adapt that knowledge to a VM (though usually there's no difference).

[eric03]

I apologize, I am using virtual box.

[mpack]

No need to apologize, I just wanted to be sure of what you're using.

On the networking, we can advise if the use of VirtualBox has any bearing, otherwise standard PC networking guidance should work just fine.

[Rootman]

I've done precisely what you are doing on a number of occasions.

Are you using BRIDGED networking?

Can you ping the resources, namely the domain controller or server from the virtual PC?

I assume you've setup everything like the old one, DNS, WINS, etc?

You say "connecting", are you just trying to connect via TCP/IP or actually trying to join the PC via a Windows domain? If you are trying to JOIN the PC to the domain please note that you cannot re-join a NEW PC using the same PC name as an OLD PC without doing some work. You must either DISJOIN the old one, then REJOIN the new one or at least reset the computers AD account so a NEW PC can assume it's token. Joining the NEW PC with a NEW name will work also.

[eric03]

I am going to hook up this morning, and will get back to you. I understand i must disjoin existing client from workgroup, restart, and then add new virtual machine. This is an exact copy of the existing machine, but I did verify the IP configuration including DNS etc. were the same. I did not try a bridged networking. I was not sure which type to select. With bridhed, I do not need to configure anything on the host machine? Or do I?

[Rootman]

With bridhed, I do not need to configure anything on the host machine? Or do I?

No, I've always left my hosts stock. If the HOST can see the network and ping devices etc. it sould work OK. Setting the GUEST to bridged is pretty much the same as attaching the VM directly to the network like any other physical box would.

Try nd make sure the guest can see the network by pinging stuff on the network. If it responds you can then join the guest to the domain as long as the name is either different or you've unjoined the old physical one from the domain first - AD will not tolerate two PCs with the same host name. If you haven;t already dis-joined the OLD physical PC I would just RENAME the VM to something similar, perhaps with a -VM appended to the name or something just to make the VMs Windows name something different. Be sure te PHYSICAL BOX is turned OFF or networking detached as having an IP conflict can bollix up the system as well. Join the VM to the domain, be sure it works, then dis-join the OLD box, then rename the new VM to the same name as the OLD physical box in Windows, AD will also change.

Not to get you confused, but If you have a large domain with several domain controllers be aware that you may have to wait a few hours before doing a name switch-a-roo as delayed replication amongst the domain controllers can cause a newly joined and renamed box (physical or virtual) to get tossed off the domain. Where I work we have a worldwide WAN with a dozen domain controllers and I've dis-joined and re-joined a computer (sometimes it's just a physical replacement or a re-imaged old box) and it works for a while and then suddenly the computer account is invalid. The DCs can't agree if the new instance of the computer is valid or not and take the "safe" route of canceling the account. So if I need to do this I dis-join, wait a few hours then re-join the new one. If you only have one or two DCs locally on the LAN then don't worry about it, the replication is done in seconds.

[eric03]

Thanks for all the help so far. I did get my VM to connect to domain. It seems to be working well. I did try originally with just virtual PC to do this, and would connect, but after a couple hours the machine would stop communicating with the domain, untill you shut it down and restarted the virtual PC. I am running machines that have process controls on them, and the operator would not always be changing pages/settings, and it almost seemed like the host machine was going into standby. I believe I have eliminated all the different ways dell tries to conserve power, so we will see if the virtual Box works better.

[Rootman]

Good news. Buried in some NIC's settings that you get to through the NETWORK settings is a POWER SETTING tab that specifies if you want to allow Windows to power the NIC down after no use. It really shouldn't be doing this but sometimes it does anyway.

Also check the Windows POWER SETTINGS and set it to HIGH PERFORMANCE.

Also check to see if there are updates for the hosts NIC drivers.

I've also had better luck with the PARAVIRTUALIZED NICs in the guest as well.

If you don't use IPV6 you might want to turn it off on the HOST and GUEST as well, should nto cause this kind of issue but can cause some switch issues.