#VMWARE MAC ADDRESS SCOPE PC#
#VMWARE MAC ADDRESS SCOPE WINDOWS#

What this means is that your VMs are just going to request another IP address from your company’s DHCP server (let’s say, if you are on the corporate network) and they would be on the same network as your host computer. You can think of the VMs with bridged connections all being connected to a big virtual bridge, along with your host computer.

#VMWARE MAC ADDRESS SCOPE PC#

With bridged networking, the virtual machine is on the same network as the host (your PC or laptop that’s running Workstation). To do this, I had to know the IP address of the VM on the NAT network, as assigned via Workstation’s DHCP server.įigure 4 Understanding VMware Workstation Bridged Networksįor my VMs running in Workstation, instead of the default of NAT, I typically prefer to configure them with Bridged networking. As you see below, I wanted to be able to connect to a VM in the NAT network, inbound, using RDP (remote desktop) so I opened a port on the Workstation host under 3390 (incremented one from 3389, or RDP) to RDP on the VM inside the NAT network (port 3389). It is possible to have inbound NAT connections to a VM but you must configure those manually in Workstation’s Virtual Network Editor under NAT Settings. The main limitation that you need to be aware of is that you can only one network set to NAT (this is also the same for the bridged network type). The IP address, assigned to your VM that is on the NAT network, is translated to the IP address assigned to Workstation’s physical network adaptor when the NAT’ted VM needs to communicate with the public network (which could be the local company network if you are cabled to the LAN or the Internet, let’s say if you are at a coffee shop). The default IP address range for the NAT network is 192.168.75.0 with a 255.255.255.0 (class C) subnet mask (which is completely configurable by you).

With NAT, or network address translation, the virtual machine will receive an IP address from VMware Workstation’s built in DHCP server. Understanding VMware Workstation NAT Networks For example, you can change the bridged network to be a different VMnet or just delete it completely (if you do, remember that the Restore Default option is your friend because it can quickly put everything back to how it was when Workstation was installed). Keep in mind that these are all “by default” because all of this is configurable by you.

Virtual network adaptors are in each VM and you can add multiple, if needed.

You can create your own custom VMnet networks.

The virtual DHCP server serves NAT and host-only networks.

Used to manage your virtual networks, here’s what the Workstation Virtual Network Editor looks like.įigure 1: VMware Workstation 9 Virtual Network Editor Three Types Of Virtual Networks In Workstation, By Default: Here’s how the three default virtual networks break down and what “VM net” they map to. The Internet access, as described above, is accomplished with the default virtual machine network type – NAT (each of them are discussed in more detail below). VMs also need access to enterprise apps that are running on the local LAN.īy default, VMware Workstation offers 3 types of virtual networks – NAT, bridged, and host-only. After all, just like your desktop or laptop, your VMs need Internet access to browse the web or check email, for example. Typically, the most important thing you want physical network connectivity for is to connect a VM to the local LAN and then to the Internet. It’s the virtual network, as created by VMware Workstation, which connects your virtual machines to the physical network. Introduction to Virtual Networking in VMware Workstation What I’ll be focusing on in this article is how virtual networking works in VMware Workstation and what’s new related to virtual networking in Workstation version 9. Workstation has a strong snapshot manager, the greatest list of supported guest operating systems, remote virtual machine management/control with the new WSX (see my article – Managing VMware Workstation VMs Remotely with WSX), connectivity to vSphere in the datacenter for VM management and import/export and, finally, the most mature virtual networking. This is because Workstation offers the most maturity and functionality out of any of the desktop-based hypervisors.

#VMWARE MAC ADDRESS SCOPE WINDOWS#

In my opinion, VMware Workstation is the premier and ideal platform for virtualizing desktops on your local Windows or Linux laptop or desktop computer.

Vmware mac address scope