install vmware server on windows server 2008 domain controller

Installing VMware Server 2 on a Windows Server 2008 SBS throws out a warning if the Windows Server is set as domain controller.

Warning 25008: It is recommended that you don't install this product on a domain controller.

After google-ing for explainations, i found on vmware knowledge base docs that we would ignore it and go on with installations. Bad idea.

Everything was working fine until we had to restart SBS server and everything started to fall over.

VMware server installs a VMware DHCP service and SBS primary physical network card couldn’t have a gateway assigned automatically. The VM ethernet card took over as dhcp and assigned its own default virtual gateway

Solution: disable vmware dhcp service from the administrative tools and everything was back to normal. It cannot be disabled from the VMware Manage Virtual Networks tool.