asked on 9/19/2018

Restrict avilable network interfaces for bridging in VMWare Workstation 14

Hello Experts,

I want to restrict available network interfaces for (automatic) bridged networks in VMWare Workstation 14 for the end user. The virtual network editor required Admin privileges to create new network interfaces. But, a user can easily change a host only to bridged or NAT or vice-versa without Admin privileges.

Any ideas on how to?

Thanks in advance.

Kaps

Networking VMware

Last Comment

John

9/20/2018

John

9/19/2018

Go into the Network Editor as Admin and remove NAT and Host Only Interfaces, leaving only Bridged. I looked at my own VMware Workstation V14 and I think that will work.

Make a record of the settings in case you wish to add them back in.

Kapila Jayasinghe

9/19/2018

ASKER

Hi John,

Sorry, looks like my question is not clear enough.

1. I want all virtual network interface types present in Network editor in VMWare. In fact, I have created 4 x host only and 1 x NAT interfaces for all my users
2. Time to time, some users need to change their virtual VMs NAT interface to a bridged one.
3. I want a way to disable availability of some physical networks for the bridged network option. By default VMWare bridges to all available physical network interfaces.

Cheers,

Kaps

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)

9/19/2018

What you are looking for is beyond what VMware Workstation is capable of.

John

9/19/2018

You cannot do what you want. If you wish to restrict the guest machines to Bridged networking, you must remove all other network types. This will work.

If you must have all other network types available, then users can switch them.

John

9/20/2018

Just out of curiosity, why is this an issue on some other user's computer. This is not your VMware Workstation computer, it is theirs. So there should not be an issue removing VMware network interfaces on their computer.

Kapila Jayasinghe

9/20/2018

ASKER

Hi John,

These PCs are in a corporate network. I want this solution to prevent a user from accidentally bridging an interface and exposing a rogue virtual network to cause interruptions to services in the corporate network.

Cheers

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)

9/20/2018

Migrate to ESXi.

VMware Workstation is a Developers End User Application which requires Local Administrator rights.

If a user has Local Administrator rights they can change anything on that PC.

The functions you require are beyond the application design.

You could experiment with disabling networks, but this is not going to work if users have Local Admin rights, because they could just enable again!

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

John

9/20/2018

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