VMWare Workstation & Adapter VMNet1, VMNet8

[esteban2800VBOX]

I'm a newbie to vmware workstation. I have been using VirtualBox for a while. I noticed that after installing vmware, it installs 2 virtual adapters: VMWare VMNet1 and VMNet8. I'm using Windows 7 64bit. After rebooting, my network adapter takes about 5 minutes to initialize. I can't get on the internet for a while until my main adapter initializes. Do I really need both adapters? I noticed that if I disable them, I can speed up my DNS. I have 3 virtual adapters on my box: Adapter for my VirtualBox, VMWare VMNet1 and VMWare VMNet8. I'm only using VMWare for education purposes and to check how stable it is with Windows 7 64Bit. All ideas are welcome. I want to disable 1 adapter but someone's advise.

[esteban2800VBOX]

Basically, I don't want these adapters to check for DNS. I can still keep them enable but my embedded NIC card takes to long to do DNS resolution.

[esteban2800VBOX]

I guess I need to wait for a stable version. VMWARE 6.5 crashed on my system. I have no issues with virtual box only with Vmware workstation. Is there a stable version out there?

[Borja_Mari]

Hi,

by default at the workstation install time three network interfaces are created:

vmnet0: The bridge interface associated with a physical nic

vmnet1: The host-only interface. This hasn't a physical pair nic

vmnet8: The nat interface that gives net connectivity using the IP from the host

This default three interfaces can be managed from the "virtual network editor" that is on the workstation.

Here you can check some information about this topic. Additionally i would recommend you to check the workstation documentation.

If you have noticed a dns issue related to the workstation interfaces. you can disable or delete them temporally. Later you will be able to enable them o recreate using the "virtual network editor".

Finally think about the fact you would need some of the three vmware interfaces if you want to give some kind of network connectivity to the virtual machines running inside workstation.

Regards/Saludos,

Pablo

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[esteban2800VBOX]

I actually had to uninstall vmware from my machine. It crashed my system when I tried creating a guest. I guess I have to read more about vmware. I'm running Windows 7 64BIT, 8GB MEM, 2x3.5Ghz CPU (Intel 2 Core Duo), 1 TB Barracuda. Plenty of memory and storage for a small PC. I have no issues with Virtual Box or MS Virtual PC.

VMWare is just not playing well with Windows 7. Let me do some more research before I install it again. This is the whole reason I was asking if it was stable on Windows 7. Appearently it is not on my system.

-EC

[golddiggie · Accepted solution]

Windows 7 as a HOST isn't supported until VMware Workstation 7. Using the previous release is extremely not recommended. The compatibility is clearly listed on the VMware Compatibility guide when you look at the Guest/Host OS section and search for Windows 7. While you can run Windows 7 as a GUEST in WS 6.5.3, you cannot use it as a host until version 7 or later.

I have VMware Workstation 7 installed (7.1 right now) under Windows 7 x64 and it doesn't impact the host OS at all during the boot process. Network connections are available immediately. I'm running a Dell Precision Workstation 490 with dual quad core Xeon's at 2.33GHz per core (E5345's), 16GB RAM, 3 750GB Seagate Barracuda SATA drives in a RAID 0 array. I'm using the onboard Broadcom Gb NIC, plus a single port Broadcom Gb NIC as well. I do have an actual DC on my network, so I'm not depending upon my router to perform any DNS/DHCP duties.

VMware VCP4

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[esteban2800VBOX]

Golddiggie,

Perfect! That's all I wanted to hear. I was afraid that VMWare was going to mess up my existing installation. I have an OptiPlex 780 currently running VirtualBox, MS Virtual PC. I'm taking a VMWare training class and I want to make sure my system will handle it. Thanks for the feedback.

[golddiggie]

Wait until you get your hands into ESX/ESXi... Ever since I did, I've reduced my use of the workstation product... You will need to dedicate a resource to running just ESX/ESXi though (I use a Dell PWS T7400 properly configured with hardware on the HCL). I'm running eight virtual servers on the one physical system 24x7... It can run almost completely headless once configured (or use a KVM to manage it at that level when necessary)... I run CentOS Linux VM's on the host, Server 2003 and 2008 versions on the host too. I also installed the vMA onto it last week so that I could start diving into that...

If you want to discuss deeper, send me a private message and we'll connect...

VMware VCP4

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[esteban2800VBOX]

Sounds good. Until now, I can only do so much with my small pc. When I get my training, I'll see if I setup a sandbox at work.