Windows 2008 Server NIC always adds static IP address of 0.0.0.0 in network config

Question

On a Windows 2008 server that is running under ESX 3.5 we see an issue for the NIC whereby it has multiple IP's. One is its normal IP 10.2.x.x, the other is the 0.0.0.0 address (subnet 0.0.0.0, gateway as per normal nic).

Heres the ipconfig /all dump

Windows IP Configuration

   Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : server
   Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . : domain.local
   Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
   IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
  DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : domain.local

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : domain.local
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/1000 MT Network Connection
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-56-B0-3B-AC
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.2.81.71(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.2.81.254
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.2.81.57
                                       10.2.81.49
   Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : 10.2.81.57
   Secondary WINS Server . . . . . . : 10.2.81.49
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection*:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : domain.local
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.domain.local
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

IPV6 is unselected in properties, and IPV4 is selected.

If I manually remove the 0.0.0.0 address it sticks until a reboot, then it reappears again when viewing the NIC properties.

Answer 1

I'm with Dave, I don't see the 0.0.0.0 that you're talking about.

You may, however, see a route to 0.0.0.0 in the route print command, which is the default gateway for your NIC. Your default gateway is where you go for access to any networks you don't know about.

Is this 0.0.0.0 address causing an actual problem?

Answer 2

Where are you seeing 0.0.0.0 because it's not in the ipconfig /all output? Windows uses 0.0.0.0 to mean 'listen on all IPs' so if you're looking at netstat output you're just seeing services that are listening on all IPs. If this isn't the case, please tell us where you are seeing this IP.

Answer 3

It seems like you have your NIC assigned 0.0.0.0 as the IP, and then a preferred IP of 10.2.81.71.

But that would normally be impossible because preferred Ip is usually only present when you are using auto-config. Perhaps you were manually entering additional IPs into the IPv4 configuration?

• Remove all the IPs fro the NIC, then make sure to put the 10.2.81.71 IP in, and only the 10.2.81.71 IP.

• make sure the alternate IP settings of the NIC are empty.

• If it's still persisting, check to make sure that you don;t have a script or GPO that is set up to assign the NIC to the adapter

• If no script/GPO, I'd uninstall IPv4 from the NIC, reboot, re-install IPv4 on the NIC and then assign the IP again and see if that resolves the issue.

• IF you still see this issue then you might try re-installing TCP/IP.