[Solved] DHCP in VM - No leases to PMs

[apaseall]

Hi,
I am new here, so please be gentle.

I have a little problem.
My DHCP is not offering leases to physical machines.

I hope that someone can help me work out what I am doing wrong.
I have spend some time trying to get this to work, but I am a bit stumped and drained.

Here is a brief and incomplete description of what I am working with;
2 physical machines (PMs)
1 cisco switch (Cisco Small Business 300 Series Managed Switch)

PM1 - windows server 2012 r2 essentials (Host)
PM2 - windows 7 home premium

PM1 has a virtual instance of windows server 2012 r2 essentials (VM1)
PM1 has a few other VMs running various OSs.

VM1 has Active Directory roles ie DNS, Web Server etc.
VM1 also has the Routing & Remote Access role (RRAS with NAT).
VM1 now has the DHCP role.

Obviously I have a mixture of virtual switches, External, Internal and Private.

Ok I think that is enough info on the setup. Let me know if you need any more.

So the DHCP is running in a virtual machine. It hands out leases to other virtual machines.

Specific Test 1
Open settings of another virtual machine (vmTest). Add network adaptor.
Pick the virtual switch of interest (lets call it vmNIC1).
Start vmTest, check interface set for dhcp, examine status for IP address.

Result 1 - Pass.
Yes the IP address is within the expected range.

Note.
vmNIC1 is a virtual switch with type external. It has a static IP address in VM1.
It is the designated internal interface for NAT.
The pNIC for vmNIC1 is connected to the Cisco Switch.

Specific Test 2
Connect PM2 to Cisco Switch. Check interface set for dhcp, examine status for IP address.

Result 2 - Fail.
No. The IP address is of the type 169.254.178.x

Can someone give me some advice on where I might look to make changes to get THIS setup to work.
What I mean is that I don't want to have say another VM to run just DHCP, nor do I want to have the Cisco Switch provide DHCP, etc.

I feel pretty sure that I am missing something rather simple.

I hope this is the right place to ask for this help, and that I have asked in a polite enough manner.
Thanks, Apa

 

[j_h_o]

1. Have you tried with another physical switch?
2. Do you have DHCP snooping enabled on the switch? Can you paste config of the switch?

 

[Naeblis]

Maybe i missed it. Does your DHCP server have 2 NICs, one for internal and 1 for external?

edit -- "It is the designated internal interface for NAT"

why do you need NAT if you have a direct connection to the switch ?

edit 2. now i see that you have NAT for your other items.
move NAT and RRASS to its own server. off of the DHCP server. then have two or more NICs on the RRAS server

 

[apaseall]

In desperation I reset the Cisco Switch.
Whilst I was waiting for a post here, I tried again, with a fail.
When I came to backup the config with the intent of copying the relevant parts here, I suddenly wondered if I had recreated the LAG.
Turns out that NO I had not recreated the LAG in the Cisco Switch.
LAG is the link to the PM1, two interfaces teamed.

Short story long, I now works.
I bet that if I had not gone to the effort of asking here, I would still be scratching my head.

Now to recreate the other configurations in the Cisco Switch, one at a time to try and nail where I broke it last time.

@j_h_o Thank you for your post, as you can see it did prompt me to do something I had forgotten.
No I do not happen to have another switch of a similar type.

 

[apaseall]

@Naeblis Thank you also for you post.
I have six physical ethernet ports, pNIC1-6.
I am limited by the licence, essentials I guess is supposed to do it all in one instance.
I agree that items like that should be on their own dedicated instances.
However I wish to have those roles in windows, rather than say a linux instance.