Why can't I access my VMWare Windows 7 guest VM via ping or through Remote Desktop after the hardware host lost power and shut down? The VM appears to boot normally and I can log in normally through the VSphere client console window. Once in, the VM's network access seems absolutely normal – even internet access. From the outside, however, no machine can ping it even though it appears DNS has the correct IP address for the host name. Even pinging by IP address does not work, although the VM can ping itself either way.
VMWare Windows 7 Virtual Machine Can Access Network But Can’t Be Pinged Or RDT
virtual-machinesvmware-vspherewindows 7
Best Answer
The Windows Firewall service was configured with the startup property as 'automatic' - which is correct - but the service failed to start. Manually started the service and network access from the outside returned to normal. Curious that the Firewall service not being started was a more 'secure' mode than it being started and 'on'... By the way, there were other hints the service was not running such as the Firewall dialog in Control Panel lacking the usual elements when opened. Wouldn't it be great if that dialog said "Firewall Service is not started" in that condition?