If this post is inappropriate in this area, please let me
know the best place to post, thanks!

I'm just trying to find out if this scenario is even possible,
using some sort of VMware/Virtual Box, etc..

**Note: Host=Physical PC , Guest OS = Virtual PC

I'd like the Host to be Windows (either XP or Server) and the Guest OS
be Redhat AS 4.

I'd like both OS's to be connected to the network, either with one or 2 Nics.
The Redhat OS would be getting continuous database updates from a remote host while the network was up.

Now the tricky part (for me anyway).
If the network goes down, I need to be able to access/connect from the Host OS
to the Redhat OS.

Is this even possible? I've tried playing with VMware, searching various web forums, etc.. but have only managed to totally hose the system to the point of starting over!

Let me know if you need more information,thanks!
kim

if i understand correctly, if your network goes down, you want to be able to access the guest OS from the Windows machine locally. This is possible under VMWare, just change the networking from bridged to NAT and you won't need an external network, after things are back online, then you can put your guest OS back out there by rebooting it and changing it back to a bridged connection

Correct, but.. is there anyway to do this without changing bridging to Nat and back again?
I need to come up with appx 25 of these types of systems, placed in different areas, to be used at a moments notice when the network goes down.
Would having 2 Nics help?

With vmware, you can access the vmware console at http://localhost:8222 or https://localhost:8333. You can get a console view of the desktop and do what ever you want to the guest.

I think your question is about having the guest and host network with one another which you cannot do when the guests are bridged to the network. You will need to change this setting. The other option would be to leave the guest machines always on NAT and figure out some way to route traffic to the guest through the NAT.

I hope this helps

The part about the guest and host networked together won't work if bridged, was something I didn't know, so that helps! Now, about routing thru the NAT.. I'll start poking around and see if I can find out how to do that.. thanks so much for pointing me in the right direction!
kim