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VM Windows Server 2012 r2

I was able to rdp to this VM without issues until today.

While logged in via rdp I was in control panel > firewall and I noticed that there was a message saying 'use recommended settings' for the firewall - see below;

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I clicked this, and the screen froze shortly afterwards. I was booted from the session and haven't been able to rdp since.

Whenever I try to rdp I receive the following error;

enter image description here

From what I understand this VM is one of many installed on a physical server. Controlled via vSphere.

The VM is on the same network as my office PC, I am able to ping the VM IP address. It's in a different location physically so I don't have access to re-boot anything.

  • What should I do in this situation?
  • Do I need to contact the server administrator and ask for a reboot of this single VM?

3 Answers 3

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By clicking, you turned the firewall back on and RDP traffic using TCP port 3389 is now being blocked.

Since it's a VM, you'll need to (or have someone else) connect to it through the vSphere client and then allow an exception for incoming traffic on that port to allow the connection to work again. You could turn the firewall off again, but depending on your security needs, that may not be the best action.

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You needs to turn off the firewall on VM server. Also, check the Remote Settings (Control Panel --> System --> Remote Settings) and make sure to select Allow remote connections to this computer. If you can't reach the server, you will need to connect into the vsphere console and make these changes.

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    "VM server" usually refers to the physical host, not to a VM; also, turning off the firewall altogether might be inappropriate depending on the environment, a RDP exception is a better solution. Last but not least, remote connections are obviously already enabled, because he was RDPing in and didn't disable them.
    – Massimo
    Nov 19, 2015 at 20:45
  • "VM Server" means Virtual Machine Server. Physical server is a HOST (Commonly a Blade). Every environment is different, commonly turn off the Windows firewall is recommended on an business environment due the lots of communication issues caused by Windows Firewall. You can make a RDP rule to avoid the RDP issue, but try if you can ping other servers on your network, you can't right? it is because Windows Firewall are blocking it. A regular Business environment used a good Firewall to avoid any attack or unauthorized access to your servers. That's why turn off Windows Firewall is recommended.
    – HEMAN85
    Nov 30, 2015 at 17:07
  • I actually agree with you in that turning off WF makes things a lot simpler, and I tend to turn it off whenever I can; but you're greatly oversimplifying, because this highly depends on the environment you're in, and there are lots of situations where you just can't turn it off.
    – Massimo
    Nov 30, 2015 at 17:25
  • Anyway, the second half of your answer is still wrong; remote connections were already enabled (he was RDPing in), and he didn't disable them.
    – Massimo
    Nov 30, 2015 at 17:26
  • You can RDP because you already have opened the 3389 port. You cant ping it because WF will block the ping. Just make a test.
    – HEMAN85
    Nov 30, 2015 at 17:36
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Another good idea is to check out the vSphere hardening guidelines here for your verion: VMware also has a free online service to do this kind of checking. Check this out for more details

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  • This has nothing to do with the firewall configuration inside a VM.
    – Massimo
    Nov 19, 2015 at 20:43

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