VMDP Network Issues with Windows 2003 on SLES 10 SP2

[maximepierron]

We came accross this very same issue in two different environments. Virtualized Windows 2003 could not query virtualized DNS server when the DNS server is virtualized on the same dom0, when VMDP 1.5_05 is installed on Windows 2003. However, other (non-virtualized) computers could query the DNS server normally. Also, Windows 2003 can ping the DNS server, and can query the DNS server when the driver pack is not installed. Last, virtualized Windows 2003 can query other virtualized DNS servers when they are hosted on different Xen servers

Like I said, we experienced this issue in two different environments, although they are similar in their Xen and OES implementation. Here are the versions of the Xen, DNS and Windows VM, the versions are the same in the two environments.

dom0
SLES 11, up-to-date as of this week.
Xen 3.3 installed and up to date, included with SLES 11 and OES 2.

DNS domU
SLES 10 SP2, up-to-date as of this week
DNS implementation included in OES 2 and DSfW

Windows domU
Windows 2003 R2 SP2, up-to-date as of this week
Novell VMDP 1.5_05 downloaded from NOVELL: Worldwide and released in June 2009.

My colleagues and I don't understand how only DNS queries are broken when VMDP is installed as other TCP/IP communications between Windows and the DNS server appear to work normally.

Does anybody have some experience with this issue?

TIA

You have to disable tx offload on the paravirtualized sles10sp2 with something like "ethtool -K eth0 tx off". It should slove your problem.