Cannot establish remote desktop connection after rebooting

Symptoms

• When you restart a virtual machine, the IP address is changed from the assigned static IP address to 169.254.x.x.
• The guest operating system network interface with a static IP address fails to communicate with the network until the IP address is changed to DHCP and then back to a static IP address.

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Cause

From VMware:

This issue occurs because the IP address registry values are incorrectly overwritten by a newly added IP address, instead of the whole list of IP addresses. 

In other words, when a virtual machine template is cloned, as it is when we checkout a server, the IP settings are changed. For some unknown reason the registry settings are not always updated properly. This causes a Microsoft feature named "IP Autoconfiguration" to set the IP address to a 169.254.x.x IP on the next reboot.

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Resolution

NOTE: This issue can only be fixed from the console since the server cannot be accessed remotely during this time. To access the console you must be familiar with vSphere and have a login for vCenter. If you cannot access the console through vSphere or the vSphere web client please submit a ticket to have this issue fixed.

To resolve this issue, perform one of these options:

• Reconnecting the network can remove issues with the virtual connection:

1. Edit the settings on the virtual machine.
2. Select Network Adapter.
3. Deselect Connected.
4. Click OK to apply the settings.
5. Navigate to Edit Settings.
6. Select Network Adapter.
7. Select Connected.
8. Click OK to apply the settings.

• If the above steps did not resolve the issue you need to change the registry in the virtual machine:

To manually edit the registry:

1. Click Start > Run , type regedit, and click OK. The Registry Editor window opens.
2. Navigate to the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces registry key.
3. Select each key under Interfaces until you see the 169.254.x.x IP address. This is the value that must be edited.
4. Change or add these strings:
• Note: To add a new value right-click, select New > String value.
• Note: To confirm the version of Windows, click Start > Run, type winver, and click OK. 

• In Windows 2008:
• Name = ActiveConfigurations, Type = REG_SZ, Data = Alternate_{GUID}
• Name = IPAddress, Type = REG_SZ, Data = IP address
• Name = SubnetMask, Type = REG_SZ, Data = Subnet mask

• In Windows 2008 R2:
• Name = IPAddress, Type = REG_SZ, Data = IP address
• Name = SubnetMask, Type = REG_SZ, Data = Subnet mask
• Name = DefaultGateway, Type = REG_SZ, Data = Gateway