Can't connect to VM after changing the IP address

Question

_{Wednesday, January 16, 2013 4:20 PM}

the Azure DHCP configured the VM with the IP 10.4.4.5 and after I changed to the 10.4.4.4 (same subnet) I wasn't able to connect again to the VM, I restarted, check the configuration in the Virtual Network but no luck

All replies (4)

_{Wednesday, January 16, 2013 10:13 PM ✅Answered}

Hello,

It sounds like you have changed the IP address of the VM to a static IP address of 10.4.4.4, rather than keeping the VM on DHCP. Static IP addresses are not supported in the traditional sense with VM's, however, you can create a virtual network within the Azure platform which gives you more control over which private IP addresses the VM's receive but the VMs must still be configured for DHCP to work properly.

If you have any production data on there - please open a support ticket to try and get Microsoft to assist you in recovering the data. In the future, ensure you don't modify the IP settings for the network interface.

-Ira Bell

_{Tuesday, August 5, 2014 4:52 PM}

Please elaborate more, Ira! I am trying to setup with the TLG (Test Lab Guide) as per Microsoft Azure instructions... but, it gets snagged at pinging the dc1. The other machines do not seem to be pointing to the DC1 as DNS Server. Certainly, that would be in the DHCP lease, but, how to manage or even see what Azure DHCP is doing with MY network?

Yeah, tried to go explicit IP so I could provide the Name Server settings... according to you I have just deamonized (or is the term Zombie? Running, but unusable, you know) those VM.

So, can you point me to, or explain how the Test Lab people expect this to be fixed? They just refer to verifying and moving on... nothing about if it needs to be fixed. And, I know full well how to do it Old School, but, how in Azure?

Thanks!

_{Thursday, August 7, 2014 8:33 PM}

Hey Bryce, 

It's difficult to know where you are without having all of the details - but let me try to help by asking these questions:

1. Did you create a Virtual Network in Azure with a privately addressed network? If so, what is that network (e.g. 10.x.y.z, 172.., 192..)?

2. In the Azure created Virtual Network, did you add a DNS server under the "Configure" tab of that virtual network? That DNS server should be the address of the Domain Controller. One thing you might find interesting is that the first assigned address in Azure is .4, assuming that you're on a /24 CIDR and your network ID is 0. The reason for this is that .1 is the Default Gateway and .2 and .3 are reserved for Azure's use. As such when you're building a brand new network - an easy way to get through it is to set your DNS server to something like 192.168.1.4 because you can ensure that the first server you spin up will be ready for a DCPROMO! Then all of the other servers you spin up will receive the .4 as their primary DNS address and easily be able to locate the DC. 

By the way, you're allowed to set static IP addresses for Azure VMs but it needs to be done with PowerShell. Here are a couple of articles which explain this:

http://windowsitpro.com/windows-azure/set-azure-vm-static-ip-address

http://up2v.nl/2014/03/05/windows-azure-now-allows-to-set-fixed-ip-addresses-for-virtual-machines/

_{Thursday, August 7, 2014 8:35 PM}

Another thing I would note is that if you've made an error which makes on of your VMs inaccessible - you can always download the VHD from the Azure storage account and run it locally to fix the issue (e.g. reset your NIC to DHCP). Then you'd upload the VM and use the Azure PowerShell cmdlets to bring the VM back online. It's a little time consuming for your first exercise - but is a fun one nonetheless!