Hi,
I have a home server running VMWare Workstation 10. In order to remotely access it I have set up a Debian VM (NAT networking) that establishes a tunnel with my office workstation.
Using this setup I am able to access the host machine (SMB, other ports) and the adjacent network. However, Remote Desktop to the host does not work:
Office machine (where the screenshot was taken) -------[tunnel]--------> VM (on Home server) ----- Home server (192.168.23.100)
I get a login prompt and the credentials are correctly verified (so the actual connection is working), but as soon as Remote Desktop is attached to the active session (where VMWare Workstation is running) the connection freezes by either showing a black screen infinitely or briefly showing the desktop and then aborting after 10 seconds. As soon as the RDP session terminates the tunnel continues functioning.
My guess is that since the Remote Desktop traffic for the desktop session is tunneled through a VM running on the same session some kind of dependency problem arises.
This forum topic seems to cover the same issue (pfSense running on the host, RDP to the host fails), but provides no solutions: https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=61257.0
I already checked the VMWare KB - the only similar article (here) is not related to my problem.
Using different userspace tunneling tools (like SSH tunneling with putty) works fine, so I suspect the problem lies somewhere within VMWare. I've also tried Bridged network without success.
The attached screenshot illustrates the issue. I've connected to the host (through the tunnel) two times. You can see that pings 24-42 were all answered approximately 20 seconds after ping 24 (i.e. when RDP terminated and the tunnel was restored). RDP automatically reconnects at icmp_req=44 and the process repeats. The actual RDP login is successful and I can see one frame before the connection freezes.
Any hints or ideas would be greatly appreciated. :-)