vmware adapter. cant communicate with each other

I am running VMware workstation 11 and built three 2k3 servers and two 2k8 R2 servers.
I setup virtual network adapter to NAT and specified Network for NAT (vmnet8) with the following configuration below:
I configured all the servers with one adapter (NAT) VMware8.
Now, they should be able to talk to each other....but, I am having the issue with member servers joining to the second domain. No issues with joining to the first domain.

More details: I promoted Server1 to DC and installed DNS and setup static IP. Server 1 is the forest root domain root.domain.com. I was able to join the second server to this domain. Then, I promoted the second server to the DC and created a second domain domain2.domain.com. Also, I installed the DNS on the second server for the 2nd domain and assigned static IP with the DG as for vnet8 and DNS points to itself and backup DNS to the first root DC.

For some reason, I can join the other computers to the root.domain.com but I can NOT join the computers to domain2.domain.com. I did put the DNS static settings and specified both DNS servers for root.domain and domain2.domain.com but it gives me error that it cannot contact the domain controller.....It can ping the second DC but can't join to the domain.


Please advise.

vmnet8
Subnet IP: 192.168.174.0
GW: 192.168.174.2

SM: 255.255.255.0

DHCP range: 192.168.174.0 - 192.168.174.254

For the DNS servers I set them up on the DNS servers tab under Virtual Network Settings for NAT
as
192.168.174.3
192.168.174.4

Should I setup a host adapter instead of NAT adapter?
What is the best setup for VMware workstation network adapter for my case and how to resolve the issue that I am having.

Thank you!