VMWare Workstation and Ubuntu server. Network settings help needed.: virtualization VMware Server

by: ryder0707Posted on 2009-10-12 at 07:07:55ID: 25551339

Ensure that the VM network adapter is set to bridge

by: farroarPosted on 2009-10-12 at 07:44:26ID: 25551667

Can you be a bit more clear? I am seeing under 'Virtual Network Editor' summary tab

Virtual Network Subnet DHCP
VMnet0(Bridged) 255.255.255.255
VMnet1(Host-only) 192.168.111.0 Enabled
VMnet8(NAT) 192.168.0.0 Enabled

What would I do if I wanted to set the server to 10.10.0.50?

by: red_nectarPosted on 2009-10-13 at 13:20:53ID: 25564091

Looks like you need a little VMWare Tutorial.

Firstly you need to understand that when you install VMWare you will find two new adapters installed on your HOST PC
Your GUEST OS has the ability to link itself to any of the Host's Network interfaces, including these two new adapters more on this later.

Definition Break:
Host - the PC that you installed VMWare on
Guest - The Virtual PC that is running on the host

Back to the new interfaces on the HOST:
The interfaces will be named "VM Network Adapter VMNet1" & "VM Network Adapter VMNet8" or something like that.
You need to get familiar with these.

Lets start with interface VMNet8
VMNet8 is an interface that will provide DHCP addresses, default gateway and DNS address to your Guest OS, and youll notice that the IP address that it gets is on the same subnet as the VMNet8 adapter on your Host PC, the default gateway is your PCs IP address, and the DNS is actually also hosted by the Host PC with an IP address close to the gateway address.

More importantly, VMNet8 also provides a NAT service to the guest, turning the Host PC into a little private NAT router for your VMs.

Tip: Check the ip address of your VMNet8 adapter on a windows host with the command:

netsh interface ip show config Network Adapter VMNet8

You will also find that it is a 192.168.x.x address, chosen at random during installation, but you can control from VMWare by selecting Edit->Virtual Network Editor->[Host Virtual Network Mapping] Tab, then clicking the little > sign to the right of the adapter you want to change.

VirtualNwEditor.jpg
- 54 KB
VMWare Virtual Network Editor

by: red_nectarPosted on 2009-10-13 at 13:23:40ID: 25564123

Now onto VMNet1

Similar to VMNet8, VMNet1 is an interface that will provide DHCP addresses to your Guest OS, and youll notice that the IP address that it gets is on the same subnet as the VMNet1 adapter on your Host PC but this time there is no default gateway and no NAT, giving you a little private network that stays wholly within your PC.

You will also find that it is also a 192.168.x.x address, chosen at random during installation

And now back to the Guest OS, and the way if connects to the world.

Assuming you have only 1 NIC on your Guest OS, you can link it to any adapter on your Host PC. From the Hosts point of View, these are called VMNet0 through to VMNet9. We have already discussed VMNet1 and VMNet8, time to talk about VMNet0.

VMNet0 (from the hosts perspective) is a semi-random physical adapter on your Host. Semi-random, because if you only have one physical adapter it will be that one. If (like me) you have a wireless AND a wired adapter, it will be the one it thinks it has the best chance of getting to the internet on. You can see from my screen dump above that I have changed my VMNet0 so that it is always my wired connection.
Now the crunch.

On your guest OS, you choose the adapter you want to link to:

From the Summary View Screen, choose Edit Virtual Machine Settings (or one of a few other ways to get this screen), then click on Network Adapter <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Ccwelsh%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="Preview" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Ccwelsh%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_preview.wmf"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Ccwelsh%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Ccwelsh%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><style></style>

VirtualMachineSettings.jpg
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Virtual machine Settings

by: red_nectarPosted on 2009-10-13 at 13:33:31ID: 25564235

Note the Network connection options: (Ill assume the Guest OS is set up for DHCP in the explanations)

Bridged: Means Connect me to VMNet0 whatever that happens to be. If there is a DHCP server out there, Ill get an IP address and default gateway etc from it. Ill be able to see all the other PCs on that network, and they can see me directly.

NAT: Means Connect me to the Hosts VMNet8. The Host will give me an IP address that will be visible only to the Host. However, Ill use the Host as a NAT gateway to access everything the Host can access

Host Only: Means Connect me to the Hosts VMNet1. The Host will give me an IP address that will be visible only to the Host, and I will only ever be able to communicate with the host

Custom: Means Bridge me to the adapter I have chosen on the host. If there is a DHCP server connected to the chosen interface, Ill get an IP address and default gateway etc from it. Ill be able to see all the other PCs on that network, and they can see me directly.

Now from your particular setup,

Virtual Network Subnet DHCP
VMnet0(Bridged) 255.255.255.255
VMnet1(Host-only) 192.168.111.0 Enabled
VMnet8(NAT) 192.168.0.0 Enabled

it looks like your Guest is connected to VMNet8 (192.168.0.0), so all you need to do is to change your Network Connection to VMNet0 (Bridged)

And one more thing - since your guest OS is Debian (Ubuntu) - you may find that if you copy your VM to another place, you will loose eth0. If this happens, look for a file in /etc/udev/rules.d called xxx_persistent-net.rules - where xxx is some number. Delete this file and reboot to get eth0 back again

by: farroarPosted on 2009-10-13 at 19:13:21ID: 25566738

That is exactly what I am looking for. I just took a quick look at it but let me look it over and get back to you. Thank you for the detailed response!

by: red_nectarPosted on 2009-10-13 at 22:04:15ID: 25567387

Corrections:
1. Sorry about all the junk that got dumped in my response when I pasted from MS Word (I swear it wasn't there before I hit Submit). Same deal for the apostrophes that look like little boxes with 0019 written in them.
2. The actual name of the interface that windows gives the VMWare VMnet adapters is an inane "Local Area Connection 2". ...Or 3. .. Or 4 or ?? Although at least it does get a description of "VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for VMnet1"

SO the command to check the ip address of your VMNet8 adapter on a windows host would be the command:

netsh interface ip show config "Local Area Connection 3" - or similar.

I've never liked the name "Local Area Connection x", so I've renamed my adapters VMnet1 and VMnet8 (ond my wires connection is renamed to eth0)

by: farroarPosted on 2009-10-14 at 17:42:09ID: 25576444

Fantastic. I understand. I currently have my guest OS getting an IP from the router which is what I wanted. What is a usual "good practice" for this type of networking?

Thanks again

by: farroarPosted on 2009-10-14 at 17:42:25ID: 31640038

Great!

by: red_nectarPosted on 2009-10-14 at 20:14:22ID: 25576951

Getting an IP address from a router is pretty standard on a small network - larger networks tend to use either dedicated dhcp servers, or run the dhcp service on a Windows 200x server or 'nix server. Good luck with your Ubuntu and thanks. I run mine on a linux server simply because I wanted to learn how to run dhcpd on linux!

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VMWare Workstation and Ubuntu server. Network settings help needed.

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