Adding VMNet’s in VMWare Fusion 3

February 10, 2010 // Posted in Mac, Virtualization  

This problem has come up a couple times and I figured out how to do it. It isn’t a pretty thing to do, but it works.

First, open your terminal and go to /Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/

sudo ./vmnet-apps.sh –stop

If you want a host only net, cp -R the vmnet1 folder, if you want a NAT network cp -R the vmnet8 folder. Name the new folder vmnetX where X is your new network name.

Edit the files inside. There is a dhcpd.conf which must be changed to suit your needs, if it is a nat network there is a nat.conf and a nat.mac. Change these to match the dhcpd.conf changes in networks.

Now edit the networking file. If you want a host only network, copy the VNET1 entries, if you want NAT copy the VNET8 entries. Paste and modify the entries to match your vmnet folder’s #.

Now delete the VNET_X_DHCP_CFG_HASH line, it will auto-regenerate.

Edit the lines to match the network etc. If you want the Mac to NOT have a connection (aka a self contained vm network) set VNET_X_VIRTUAL_ADAPTER to no

Now run sudo ./vmnet-apps.sh –start

Do an ifconfig and make sure your new vmnet is up and correctly configured.

Now go into ~/Documents/Virtual\ Machines.localized/

cd into your VM you want to mess with (note ADD THE ADAPTERS IN THE UI FIRST)

Modify the .vmx of the guest

From source:

For a VM with VMware tools installed:
ethernet0.present= “true”
ethernet0.startConnected = “true”
ethernet0.virtualDev = “vmxnet”
ethernet0.connectionType = “custom”
ethernet0.vnet = “vmnetX”

For a VM without VMware tools:
ethernet0.present= “true”
ethernet0.startConnected = “true”
ethernet0.virtualDev = “e1000″
ethernet0.connectionType = “custom”
ethernet0.vnet = “vmnetX”

This entry was posted on February 10, 2010 at 2:46 pm and is filed under Mac, Virtualization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Comments (4)

  • sreekanth251 says:
    May 12, 2010 at 1:36 am

    Hi Thomas thanks a lot for this posting …

    I am trying to add vmnet2 host only adapter for setting up Oracle RAC. I am a little bit confused as i am brand new to vmware fusion.

    From the above posting …

    “Now edit the networking file. If you want a host only network, copy the VNET1 entries, if you want NAT copy the VNET8 entries. Paste and modify the entries to match your vmnet folder’s #.”

    What’s is the name of the networking file that you are referring to?

    Also can you provide me a example to add secong host only adapter …

    Thanks a lot for your help …

    Sreekanth

    • Tom Vachon says:
      May 12, 2010 at 1:55 am

      Here is an example setup, I am encasing files in dashed lines, they do not belong in the file.

      sudo /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmnet-apps.sh –stop

      Edit /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/networking
      ——————
      answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
      answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_SUBNET 172.16.130.0
      answer VNET_1_VIRTUAL_ADAPTER yes
      answer VNET_2_DHCP yes
      answer VNET_2_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
      answer VNET_2_HOSTONLY_SUBNET 172.16.131.0
      answer VNET_2_VIRTUAL_ADAPTER yes
      answer VNET_8_DHCP yes
      answer VNET_8_DHCP_CFG_HASH A06F544138530491C58E2DC2E57DE2E036392486
      answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
      answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_SUBNET 192.168.235.0
      answer VNET_8_NAT yes
      answer VNET_8_VIRTUAL_ADAPTER yes
      —————

      cd /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion
      cp -R vmnet1 vmnet2
      Alter the vmnet1 dhcpd.conf to match the ip range in the networking file.

      sudo /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmnet-apps.sh –start

      That should be it.

  • sreekanth251 says:
    May 13, 2010 at 2:28 pm

    That worked without any issues …. Thanks a lot lot lot for you Tom ….

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