Dual NICs static IP settings forgets gateway

[SJDannen 0]

I have a dual NIC server running Windows 2003 standard that is acting a a web proxy server running apache behind a F5 BigIP. Both NICs are set with static IP information and I have manually configured persistent routes. Everything works fine for a while, but after random periods of time, the NIC facing the BigIP seems to forget it's gateway. The gateway still shows up in the TCP/IP settings as well as in NetSH, but if I use IPCONFIG, the gateway for that NIC is blank. Disabling and Enabling the NIC solves the problem and the gateway shows up again, but only for a small period of time (usually less than 24 hours). I swapped the NIC out yesterday with a Broadcom GigE NIC thinking that it might have been a driver issue, but I woke up this morning and checked it and the gateway was again gone.

 

Output from ROUTE PRINT command:

IPv4 Route Table

===========================================================================

Interface List

0x1 ........................... MS TCP Loopback interface

0x10004 ...00 08 02 b3 af b0 ...... HP NC3163 Fast Ethernet NIC

0x20003 ...00 10 18 16 2a 8e ...... Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet

===========================================================================

===========================================================================

Active Routes:

Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric

0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 10.1.1.1 10.1.1.49 100

0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 172.16.7.1 172.16.7.2 1

10.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 10.1.1.1 10.1.1.49 1

10.1.1.0 255.255.255.0 10.1.1.49 10.1.1.49 10

10.1.1.49 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 10

10.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 10.1.1.49 10.1.1.49 10

127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1

172.16.7.0 255.255.255.248 172.16.7.2 172.16.7.2 20

172.16.7.2 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 20

172.16.255.255 255.255.255.255 172.16.7.2 172.16.7.2 20

224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 10.1.1.49 10.1.1.49 10

224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 172.16.7.2 172.16.7.2 20

255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 10.1.1.49 10.1.1.49 1

255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 172.16.7.2 172.16.7.2 1

Default Gateway: 10.1.1.1

===========================================================================

Persistent Routes:

Network Address Netmask Gateway Address Metric

10.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 10.1.1.1 1

0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 172.16.7.1 1

0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 10.1.1.1 100

 

Output from IPConfig when problem is happening:

Windows IP Configuration

 

Ethernet adapter Private:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.1.49

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.1.1

 

Ethernet adapter Public:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 172.16.7.2

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.248

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

 

Output from IPConfig after "Public" NIC is disabled and enabled:

Ethernet adapter Private:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.1.49

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.1.1

 

Ethernet adapter Public:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 172.16.7.2

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.248

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 172.16.7.1

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Scott

[vanekjj 0]

Originally posted by sjdannen:

I have a dual NIC server running Windows 2003 standard that is acting a a web proxy server running apache behind a F5 BigIP. Both NICs are set with static IP information and I have manually configured persistent routes. Everything works fine for a while, but after random periods of time, the NIC facing the BigIP seems to forget it's gateway. .............................

 

Look in the registry and see if the gateway infomation exists. I'm guessing that it's not. You can force the issue and change the security settings. Look here:

 

HKLM\ System\ CurrentControlSet\ Services\ {xx.INDICATING NIC CARD.xx}\ Parameters\ Tcpip\ Gateway

 

-Jim

 

 

[SJDannen 0]

vanekjj,

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

I checked the registry and the gateway information is configured. System has gone 2 days now without losing the gateway. All we did is change the TCP/IP Metric configs so that if we need to reset the NIC again, the routing information metrics are created with the proper amounts. We have created another system just in case the problem is not resolved.

 

Thanks,

 

Scott

[SJDannen 0]

It turned out to be the Dead Gateway Detection. Once I removed the gateway on the internal NIC and added a static route for internal IP Addresses, the problem was resolved.