Windows 2008 R2 on VMWare: “Unable to contact IP driver. General failure”

I have cloned (Deployed) new image from a template in VMWare of Windows Server 2008 R2 server. And joined to a domain (and domain controller is another VM deployed from same template). Then this frigging error message creped up in Command Prompt whenever I try any network commands (ping, ipconfig, etc.,): “Unable to contact IP driver. General failure”

After spent few minutes on Bing, I found the solution myself. It’s frigging duplicate SID. Usually duplicate SID is not an issue (according to Microsoft). But in my case, the domain controller and standalone server has same SID (deployed from same VM image template).  My solution is to run SysPrep to generate a new SID and it’s resolved the issue for me.

1. Open Command Prompt in elevated mode (right click and select “Run as Administrator”)
2. Change your path to C:\Windows\System32\SysPrep
3. Type SysPrep and select the defaults.
4. Reboot the VM and re-join to the domain.

There. If that resolved your issue, leave me a comment.