Why does my Windows VM reboot after I add it to an environment?

Windows must reboot for the network information changes to take effect. This is an unavoidable limitation of Windows.

Why does this happen?

When you add a Windows VM to an environment, Skytap may edit the MAC address, hostname, and IP address on that VM to make sure that the VM can be uniquely identified in the environment. If Skytap changes the network information, the virtual machine reboots after start up.

This only affects Windows VMs that:

  • Have a single network adapter and that are in environments with a single network, AND
  • Have conflicting network information with another VM in the environment, AND
  • Have Skytap Helper installed

For more information, see Synchronizing Windows hostnames and Skytap network hostnames with Skytap Helper.