Windows Server 2022 VM getting APIPA after reboot (even with static assignment)

toddjustice

New Member
Jul 1, 2025
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Proxmox newbie here, so I apologize if I've missed something simple but I'm really scratching my head here.

Single proxmox host, single connection to L3 switch, trunked. Management network (native vlan 150) is working fine. Created a zone and vnet for new vlan (35) assigned to vmbr0, vmbr0 is vlan aware and has one nic. Built the vm (server 2022) and assigned it to bridge:vnet/vlan35. Install the OS, boot, assign a static ip in vlan35 and all is well. Renamed the vm (in windows) and rebooted. When the vm comes back up it has an APIPA address when running ipconfig. The static is still set in the NIC. I have tried removing the NIC from both Windows and proxmox, removing the IP info from the registry, using different NIC drivers (Intel, virtIO, vmware) all to no avail.

If I change the vmnic to just vmbr0 and give it an IP in vlan150 it works fine. Change it back to vnet/vlan35 and it goes back to an APIPA address.

I'm running a Cisco Nexus switch, no L3 interfaces and a Cisco FTD as the gateway. Thought it might be a proxy arp issue, but can't disable proxy-arp on a non routable interface on the nexus, and can't disable proxy arp on the FTD when managed by FDM (unless it can be done via cli and I haven't found it yet).

What am I missing!?!?
 
This morning I decided to spin up a second vm, server 2025 guest. Same exact issue except it doesn't even need a reboot. As soon as I assign a static on vlan35 it goes to APIPA.
 
Found the issue - not a proxmox issue, although don't have the same behavior on an esx host. Performed a packet capture on the guest NIC interface and found the firewall (Cisco FTD) was ARPing any IP on that vlan. We disabled proxy arp on the NAT rule and that seems to have resolved the issue. Hopefully that helps someone else.
 
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