W2K3 Web Edition SP2; Network fails until first login

May 12, 2008

I'm running W2K3 Web Edition w/ SP2. When I reboot my server, sometimes when

it boots up, the network is unavailable until I first login. Along with the

network being unavailable, all network services, such as web service, are

unavailable as well. This does not happen on every reboot but does happen

often.

I am running this server on VMware Server ver. 1.0.4. I have run Enterprise

Edition and Standard Edition servers on VMware and I have not run into this

problem before. So, I don't believe the problem lies with VMware, unless it

is something to do with Web Edition in particular.

I have made three copies of this virtual machine in order to test this

problem. I am testing by pinging each of the servers continuously from a

workstation on the network. I am attached to the host server and monitoring

the bootup status of the server through the VMware server console. I can see

the servers come up to the intial logon screen and if everything is working

properly, the ping starts responding. If the network fails, the ping

continues to time out. If a server does not respond to pings by the time it

is at the logon prompt, I log in to that server and it takes a few seconds

after all the desktop icons are displayed before the server starts responding

to pings. There are no events that indicate any sort of problem.

This is my first dive into Web Edition. I have used Enterprise Edition and

Standard Edition for awhile now but I have not experienced this problem

before. I did a standard install of the OS and the only third party software

that I have installed is the VMware Tools and Symantec Anti-virus. These

third party softwares are also installed on the EE and SE W2K3 servers that

are running normally. And I haven't made any significant configuration

changes to the OS, so I am assuming that this problem should be fairly

common, but I have been unable to find anything about it on the web.

Ideas? Help?

Thanks!

-Mike

Recommended Posts