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_{Community Wiki answer containing the solution originally added to the question by the author.}

Finally I found the solution: I didn't change permission to be owned by the oracle user and oinstall group for the database dir in which the Oracle software is. I think there are some scripts or programs related to listener and the oracle user could not run it.

Ultimately, this came down to a networking issue -- configuring the guest VM's network adapter (internal switch) with a static IP (this was the hard part), assigning a hosts file entry for that IP in both the Host and the Guest machines and then altering both tnsnames.ora files (host and guest) and listner.ora (guest) to use the mapped host name.

Then everything just worked.

I've pasted my internal switch config for both the host and guest and the listener and tnsnames.ora files below.

STEPS TO CONFIGURE THE GUEST VM / HOST:

Assuming that you've already created a guest VM, with a Windows Server OS, here are the networking steps...

1. Using Hyper-V manager, use the virtual switch manager add an "Internal" type switch
2. Using Hyper-V manager, open the settings dialog for the guest VM (right click on the VM). Add a network adapter using the internal switch you just created.
3. Here are my internal switch adapter settings for the host. Note that there is a baked in assumption here that you're outside the range of IP's that would otherwise appear on your network. I know that my home network uses this range (192.168.x.x), and I know I'm ok. Also, I know that my workplace uses 10.x.x.x for wireless, so I'm good there, too.

4 . And here's how I configured the guest VM:

5 . I added hosts file aliases for the guest VM on both the host and the guest:

# internal vm's
192.168.0.120    brettvm

6 . Here's the listner.ora on the guest vm (database server):

LISTENER =
  (DESCRIPTION_LIST =
    (DESCRIPTION =
      (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = IPC)(KEY = EXTPROC1521))
      (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = brettvm)(PORT = 1521))
    )
  )

ADR_BASE_LISTENER = c:\oracle

7 . Here's the tnsnames.ora on the guest VM:

LISTENER_ORCL =
  (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = brettvm)(PORT = 1521))


ORCL =
  (DESCRIPTION =
    (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = brettvm)(PORT = 1521))
    (CONNECT_DATA =
      (SERVER = DEDICATED)
      (SERVICE_NAME = orcl)
    )
  )

8 . Finally, here's the tnsnames on the client (host machine):

LISTENER_ORCL =
  (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = brettvm)(PORT = 1521))


ORCL =
  (DESCRIPTION =
    (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = brettvm)(PORT = 1521))
    (CONNECT_DATA =
      (SERVER = DEDICATED)
      (SERVICE_NAME = orcl)
    )
  )

Bon appetit!

--Brett