Do SharePoint Servers need external adapters in Hyper-V?

Question

I have two servers on Hyper-V in a development environment.

One has AD and SQL. One has SharePoint 2013.

Each server has two network adapters, one internal only and one external. On the AD&SQL server, the external adapter is turned off. From the SP2013 VM, I can ping the AD&SQL server by its IP address and hostname. I can also successfully ping the SQL Alias.

The AD&SQL server has DNS A records for each of my SharePoint Web Apps and SQL Alias. The SP2013 server has HOST file entries for the AD&SQL box and SQL alias pointing to the IP address of the internal adapter on the AD&SQL server.

Once I boot the VM, if I look at the network connections, the Internal Network status is 'Unidentified Network'. Once I turn the External adapter on, the status changes to the domain (sp2013dev.com) and remains that way once I turn the External adapter back off. Is there something that I am doing wrong or can I do something to prevent having to turn my adapter on and off again?

Answer 1

External virtual networks provide virtual machines with access to the physical network to communicate with external servers and clients, such as domain controllers, etc. External virtual networks also enable virtual machines on the same virtualization server to communicate with each other. An external virtual network may also be made available for use by the management operating system. I am sure you need this adapter.

Provides a communication link between virtual machines and a physical network by creating an association to a physical network adapter on the host computer. Dedicate one physical adapter to this type of network. For security purposes you can isolate traffic between virtual machines and other computers on the physical network by clearing the Allow management operating system to share this network adapter setting. However, you will be unable to connect to the management operating system remotely

Use best practice configurations for the SharePoint 2013 virtual machines and Hyper-V environment