VIRTUAL NETWORKING WITH "VMware Player"

FROM A "LINUX" PERSPECTIVE

Summary:
"VMware Player" provides five virtual networking configurations for the
virtual machines of a Windows or Linux host computer:

1. a "Shared Folders" gateway/router:

2. a "Network Address Translation" ("NAT") router with LAN switching:

3. a "Bridged" bridge (with no internal LAN switching):

4. a "Host-only" router with LAN switching:

and

5. an "Internal Network" LAN switch

with optional DHCP services
which consists of the "Host-Only" router with the host disconnected from it.

CONFIGURATION DIAGRAM
upstream
towards the
Internet

Real
network
adapter
in the
host

"Bridged" Bridge(=VMnet 0)(makes VMs act LAN-attached)

"Host-Only" Router (= VMnet 1) or "Internal Network" Switch
(The "Host-Only" Router Provides VMs with LAN switching,
optional DHCP service with is active by default, no NAT service,
and no upstream routing towards the Internet)
(This virtual Ethernet adapter resides in the host computer.
If you disable it, you get an "Internal Network" Switch.)

(This virtual Ethernet adapter resides in the host computer.

When the "NAT" router is used, this virtual Ethernet adapter
must be enabled if file sharing by the host is required.
"Network Address Translation"("NAT") Router (= VMnet 8)
(The default "NAT" router provides VMs with NAT service, DHCP service,
LAN switching, and upstream routing towards the Internet.

HOST

VM 1

VM 2

VM 3

VM 4

"SHARED FOLDERS" GATEWAY/ROUTER

("VMware Tools" on each VM + designated host folders)

Reference:
http://media.techtarget.com/searchNetworking/downloads/Book_VMware_Chapter_8.pdf

VIRTUAL NETWORK ADAPTERS

INSIDE HOST COMPUTERS
IN VMWARE PLAYER
If you open a terminal window on the host computer and run
ifconfig
and press the Enter key:
The, you can see that Vmware Player has added two virtual wired Ethernet
LAN adapters to your host computer:
vmnet1
and
vmnet2.

VIRTUAL NETWORK ADAPTERS

INSIDE VIRTUAL MACHINES
IN VMWARE PLAYER
By using the "Add Hardware Wizard" in the "Virtual Machine Settings" box, you can provide
unlimited network adapters for each virtual machine:
Use your RIGHT mouse button to click on the virtual machine:

Then, use the left mouse button to click on "Virtual Machine Settings" on the popup context
menu.

A "Virtual Machine Settings" box will be displayed:

Click on the "Add" button.

An "Add Hardware Wizard" box will be displayed:

Click on "Network Adapter" to highlight it:

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A "Network Adapter Type" box will be displayed:

Use the radio buttons to select the desired network configuration.

Then click on the "Finish" button.

The new network adapter will now be displayed in the "Virtual Machine Settings" box:

Click on the Save button.

The operating system of the virtual machine treats the all of the virtual network
adapters as if they were real items of hardware:

"Shared Folders" GATEWAY/ROUTER

with designated target folder located on the host
with no accessible or visible network interfaces in the host or the virtual machine
with no upstream routing to the Internet.
"VMware Tools" software must be installed into each virtual machine.
After you install it, the "VMware Tools" software inside a Windows virtual machine is located
at
C:\Program Files(x86)\VMware\VMware Player\windows.iso
or
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Player\windows.iso
"VMware Tools" software inside a Linux virtual machine is downloaded from a server at the
VMware company as a folder called VBOXADDITIONS_<version number of VirtualBox>
Then you use the files in this folder to install VirttualBox Additions software into the Linux
virtual machine.
Multiple virtual machines can access the same target folder on the host.
"Shared Folders" must be configured for each virtual machine.
A "Windows" virtual machine sees a "Shared Folder" inside the "vmware-host" virtual server.
A "Linux" virtual machine sees a Shared Folder mounted in /mnt/hgfs/.
There is no indication in host file system that a folder is being shared.

Host computer

Virtual Machine

"Shared Folder(s)"
"Shared Folders" Virtual machine sees the
= host folder access
Gateway/Router
Shared Folder(s) at
from virtual machine
/mnt/hgfs/
File system of virtual machine
Virtual network adapter is not used
does not indicate that the
folder is shared.
The host computer has no access to the file system of virtual machine.

"Network Address Translation" ("NAT") router ("VMnet 8")

The "NAT" router configuration is the default one that VMware Player provides.
It provides the following services for all virtual machines:
NAT service, DHCP server, and upstream routing to the Internet,
LAN switching between the host and virtual machines provided by the "NAT" Router,
and LAN switching between virtual machines provided by the "NAT" Router

Host computer

Virtual Machine

Internet access
"NAT" router
from virtual machine
with NAT service
Optional host folder access
with DHCP server
Virtual machine
from virtual machine
with upstream routing
communications to
if configured through
to the Internet
LAN and Internet
Samba/SMB file sharing
with LAN switching between using the virtual LAN
or Network File System (NFS)
virtual machines
network adapter.
with LAN switching between
the host and virtual machines

The "NAT" router will work fine whether or not the host is attached to it.
To connect or disconnect the host computer from the "NAT" router, you can
enable or disable the "VMware Network Adapter VMnet8" virtual Ethernet adapter.
If you disable this network adapter, then the host will be unable to share files with any of the
virtual machines, while the virtual machines can still shared files with each each other.

"Bridged" bridge ("VMnet 0")

with mandatory "TEE" connection to either an upstream, real network adapter
or to an operating system-provided virtual bridge on the host,
(with LAN switching between virtual machines performed by the real physical network)
(with LAN switching between the host and guests performed by the real physical network)
(with NAT server and DHCP server provided by the real LAN).
With this virtual network option, the virtual machine(s) participate on the real physical
network as "peers" with the host.

Host computer

Internet access
from virtual machine
Optional host folder access
from virtual machine
with SAMBA/SMB file sharing
or Network File System(NFS)

Virtual Machine

"Bridged" bridge
provides "TEE"
to a real physical
physical network
adapter but does not
switch between
virtual machines

Virtual machine
communicates to the
Bridged bridge
using the virtual LAN
adapter.

The real physical network provides DHCP services, upstream routing to the Internet, NAT
services, LAN switching between the host and virtual machines, and LAN switching between
virtual machines.
In the Bridged bridge configuration, the host cannot be disconnected from the Bridged
bridge. From any Linux host on your local area network, all files on the virtual machines that
connected to the virtual "Bridged" bridge and that are shared by means of Samba (SMB)
can be accessed by means of the procedure called
Using IP Addresses to Access Folders that are Shared by Samba (SMB) or Network File
System (NFS)
(which is located at the end of this document).
You can also use this procedure from inside the virtual machines to access Samba or NFSshared files on the host or on other hosts on your real physical LAN network.

PROBLEMS WITH "UBUNTU 10.10" HOSTS THAT HAVE BOTH A WIRED NETWORK
ADAPTER AND A WIRELESS NETWORK ADAPTER:
When running "VMware Player 3" on an Ubuntu 10.10 host, if we had both a wired Ethernet
adapter and a WiFi adapter installed on the host, both Windows and Linux virtual machines
with "bridged" network adapters failed to make an upstream connection to the Internet by
acquiring an IP address through DHCP.
When running "VMware Player 3" on an Ubuntu 10.10 host, if we only had a wired Ethernet
adapter installed on the host, both Windows and Linux virtual machines with "bridged"
network adapters were able to make a connection to the Internet. Our Ubuntu virtual
machines were able to automatically acquire a DHCP IP address and made a connection
upstream to the Internet. However, we had to use the above workaround for "Windows 7.."
virtual machines.

"Host-Only" router ("VMnet 1")

or
"Internal Network" LAN Switch
with LAN switching between the host and the virtual machine,
with LAN switching between virtual machines,
with an optional DHCP server, no NAT server, and no upstream routing to the Internet
for virtual machines

Host computer

Virtual Machine

Optional host folder access

"Host-only" router
from virtual machine
with mandatory
with Samba(SMB)
LAN switching
or Network File System(NFS) between host and virtual machine
No Internet access
with LAN switching between
from virtual machine
virtual machines
with optional DHCP server
with no NAT server.
The host has a "VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for VMnet1"
which connects the file system of the host
to the "Host-only" router

Virtual machine
communicates
with the
Host-Only Router
or other virtual
machines using
the virtual
LAN adapter

If you disable the "VMware Network Adapter for VMnet1", then "VMnet1" becomes an
"Internal Network" switch with connectivity between virtual machines, but with no connection
to the host.

In the "Host-Only" configuration, there is a LAN switching connection between the host and
the "Host-only" virtual router: The virtual "VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for VMnet1" that
VMware provides for the host can be enabled or disabled from the "Network Connections"
applet box of the Windows "Control Panel".
If you disable the "VMware Network Adapter for VMnet1", then "VMnet1" becomes an
"Internal Network" switch with connectivity between virtual machines, no connection to the
host for virtual machines, and no connection to the Internet for virtual machines.

This is the hardest configuration to set up.

The "Host-only" router acts as a firewall to prevent communications between the Internet
and all virtual machines.
It often takes a multiple reboots and long waits before the host can see shared files on the
virtual machines and vice versa.
Sometimes it is necessary to attach more than one virtual machine to the "Host-only" router
before file sharing starts up between virtual machines and between virtual machines and the
host.
From any Linux host on your local area network, all files on host that are shared by means
of Samba (SMB) can be accessed by means of the procedure called
Using IP Addresses to Access Folders that are Shared by Samba (SMB) or Network File
System (NFS)
(which is located at the end of this document).
You can also use this procedure from inside the virtual machines to access Samba or NFSshared files on other virtual machines that are connected to the virtual Host-Only router.

USING IP ADDRESSES TO ACCESS FOLDERS

THAT ARE SHARED BY SAMBA(SMB) OR
NETWORK FILE SYSTEM(NFS)
Computers that are attached to local area networks (LANs) are often real slow to
discover the files and printers that are shared from other LAN-attached
computers so you sometimes have to help them connect to other computers for
file and folder sharing.
In the following two situations, you sometimes need to proactively force a
connection between two LAN-attached computers:
SITUATION 1:
When you are inside a Vmware Player virtual machine and you need to access
a file(s) that is shared from the host computer by means of SAMBA (SMB) or
Network File System (NFS)
or
SITUATION 2:
When you are working in the host computer and you need to acces a file that is
shared from within a VMware virtual machine by means of SAMBA (SMB) or
Network File System (NFS).

STEP-BY-STEP PROCEDURE:
Step 1:
Go to the computer where the files or folders are being shared from.
Step 2:
Open a terminal window:
Step 3:
If the computer is a Windows computer, type in
ipconfig /all
and press the enter key.
If the computer is a Linux computer, type in
ifconfig
and press the enter key:

Step 4:
Locate the IP address of the real network adapter and write it down.
In our example, the IP address is
127.0.0.1

Step 5:
Go to the virtual or real computer from which you wish to access the files on the
source computer and click on open a Nautilus file management window if this
computer is running Linux.
If the virtual or real computer from which you wish to access the files on the
source computer is a Ubuntu Linux computer, click on Places and then click on
Computer:

Step 6:
If you now have a Windows Explorer, My Computer or Computer windows,
go to it's address box.
If you now have a Nautilus window, click on Go. Then click on Location:

If the virtual or real computer from which you wish to access the files is a
Windows computer, open a Windows Explorer, Computer, or My
Computer window instead of a Nautilus window.

Step 7:
In the address box, type in
smb://<ip address of destination>
and then press the enter key of the keyboard.
In our example, we type in
smb://10.0.0.34
and then we pressed the enter key:

Step 8:
All of the shared folders on the target will be displayed:

Note that Ubuntu refers to remote files that are shared via Samba(SMB
are called Windows shares.

In this example, a shared folder and a shared printer are displayed.

If you double-click on the shared folder, you will see it's contents:

Please do not confuse these shared folders with those shared by means of the
Shared Folders gateway/router. These shared folders are shared by means of
standard sharing mechanisms such as Samba (SMB) and Network File
System (NFS) and utilize the virtual Ethernet adapter(s) that is provided to the
virtual machine by Vmware Player. The Shared Folders gateway/router
provides fo one-way file sharing that is proprietary to the Vmware Player
software applicationit can only share folders that are located on the host
computer.

References for virtual networking in "Vmware Player" in general:

http://pubs.vmware.com/server1/vm/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/wwhelp.htm?
context=vm&file=network_nat_details_gsx.html
and
http://pubs.vmware.com/server1/vm/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/wwhelp.htm?
context=vm&file=network_2host_route_gsx.html