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djflux
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Add virtual hardware - how do I do it? Also, basic documentation URL?

Is the only way to add hardware to a Fusion VM to edit the VMX file? I don't mind doing it, I would just think there would be an easier way Smiley Happy

Newb Alert: I just got my first Mac (MacBook Pro 17") on Saturday so this issue maybe PEBKAC but I can't see in any of the menus a place to add hardware like there is in the Workstation or Server console. I see the little + and - buttons at the bottom of the Setting window but they seem to be grayed out.

That being said, I'm very familiar with ESX Server, Workstation, and Server so I'm not afraid to edit the VMX files

Also, is there some basic Fusion documentation somewhere on VMware's site? I searched but only found the 8 page guide on the Beta page.

Thanks for the help,

Flux.

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bgertzfield
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Oops. Sometimes it's hard to remember what's present in the public beta. Smiley Happy

Anyway, etung is right. Further betas will of course include more functionality for adding/removing devices.

View solution in original post

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rcardona2k
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>That being said, I'm very familiar with ESX Server, Workstation, and Server so I'm not afraid to edit the VMX files

Just edit the VMX files with your knowledge from the above products keeping mind Fusion is more related to Workstation 6 than any of the released versions of the above. Fusion's VMM has the latest and greatest. Smiley Happy

Also I would caution, as this has affected other users: use a Unix EOL-aware text editor like BBEdit Lite, TextWrangler, vi, emacs, etc. TextEdit in particular is bad because it will not convert Mac CR end-of-lines to unix LF end-of-lines, worse off: mixing the two! This mixing will just cause grief.

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bgertzfield
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You can add and remove devices by selecting a device type on the left hand side of the Settings window, then clicking the + or - button. Note that not all devices can currently be added through the GUI in the public beta.

The Help menu contains documentation on Fusion; it comes with the product.

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djflux
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It doesn't appear that I can add or remove ANY type of device with the + and - buttons. The only thing I could add was a Shared Folder. BTW, the machine is powered off. Am I missing something? Smiley Happy

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admin
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Nope, I'm seeing the same thing. When Ben said "not all devices can currently be added", he really meant it Smiley Happy

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bgertzfield
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Oops. Sometimes it's hard to remember what's present in the public beta. Smiley Happy

Anyway, etung is right. Further betas will of course include more functionality for adding/removing devices.

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barnys
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I am not familiar with the structure of VMX files at all, but what I am thinking is the following and correct me if I am wrong or mislead in my idea please:

\- Could I create a VM with the desired hardware (let's say Vmware Server) and then simply copy and open this VM in Fusion? would that circumvent the need of editing the VMX files manually?

\- Would I have to be worried about VMs created in Server or Workstation before "importing them" to Fusion? do I have to run some kind of converter application?

Thanks in advanced for the feedback.

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barnys
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Hello,

With some poking around I achieved one of my goals, which was to have a VM with several NICs. Now the question: is there a way to map those NICs to different phy NICs in my MAC by meas of editing the VMX file or some other way?

The menus again indicate that I have managed to select the "Use a custom unsupported setting" and then it says below it "This network adaptor many not work properly. Choose one of the available network configuration"... either NAT or Bridged.

Unlike the other products, I have no means here to map VMnet0, VMnet1, etc to the physical NICs in my Mac.

Any tricks will be super appreciated!!!!

Thanks,

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rcardona2k
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>I am not familiar with the structure of VMX files at all, but what I am thinking is the following and correct me if I am wrong or mislead in my idea please:

A VMX file is just a text file with key, value pairs, formatted as key="value". It's important to not leave the value part off by a quote, not to duplicate exact key names, and generally not to remove important keys.

>Could I create a VM with the desired hardware (let's say VMware Server) and then simply copy and open this VM in Fusion? would that circumvent the need of editing the VMX files manually?

Yes, this is a critical idea for most VMware products. The above is how most downloadable VMTN appliances are expected to "just run" in Fusion. But there is also not that much[/i] to fear in opening a VMX in BBEdit Lite.

>Would I have to be worried about VMs created in Server or Workstation before "importing them" to Fusion?

No, in general, VMware Server and Workstation are much closer kin than say ESX Server 3.0. You can however create VMs on other host platforms that have tale-tell dependencies like "C:" or "/dev/flp" references. This can be rectified by what I call "scrubbing" clean these minor host platform dependencies. If you don't, Fusion will likely just complain but move on.

>Do I have to run some kind of converter application?

This is not necessary unless the VM comes from Parallels, Microsoft VirtualPC or Virtual Server, or VMware ESX Server. Other VMware products allow opening Microsoft VHDs but Fusion as of now can not because it lacks an Importer. For the Microsoft or ESX case, you can run a nice utility called VMware Importer in either a Fusion Windows guest or remote Windows PC and pre-convert the VM to a Workstation VM which then just opens in Fusion.

For physical machine or Parallels migration, you use the brand-newly released VMware Converter 3.0, released on 1/29/2007.

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barnys
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rcarnoda2k,

I see your name all over the place here. Hands down to you!

What about my other question before your response. I am copying the question here again:

Hello,

With some poking around I achieved one of my goals, which was to have a VM with several NICs. Now the question: is there a way to map those NICs to different phy NICs in my MAC by meas of editing the VMX file or some other way?

The menus again indicate that I have managed to select the "Use a custom unsupported setting" and then it says below it "This network adaptor many not work properly. Choose one of the available network configuration"... either NAT or Bridged.

Unlike the other products, I have no means here to map VMnet0, VMnet1, etc to the physical NICs in my Mac.

Any tricks will be super appreciated!!!!

Thanks,

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rcardona2k
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>Now the question: is there a way to map those NICs to different phy\[sical] NICs in my MAC by editing the VMX file or some other way?

This is how you would ordinarily do this, but currently VMware Fusion does not allow mapping virtual NICs to exact physical NICs, i.e. in the bridged case.

>The menus again indicate that I have managed to select the "Use a custom unsupported setting" and then it says below it "This network adaptor many not work properly. Choose one of the available network configuration"... either NAT or Bridged.

>Unlike the other products, I have no means here to map VMnet0, VMnet1, etc to the physical NICs in my Mac.

As you've noticed, there is no need to adjust the reception on your TV, the virtual networking "plumbing" in Fusion is still being built and/or needs to be exposed better. Right now you can add up to four virtual network cards and the performance is great, but you can only configure the virtual NICs with NAT or what I call "common" bridge, which may just be the first en0 interface.

Adding these lines to your VM's vmx should be sufficient to give you another NIC:

ethernet1.present = "TRUE"

ethernet1.connectionType = "nat"

ethernet1.addressType = "generated"[/code]

I added the above, started Windows, it plug-n-play detect a second virtual NIC and assigned it a new IP NAT IP:

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : localdomain

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.200.101

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.200.2

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : localdomain

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.200.128

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.200.2[/code]

Early on, I asked for a vmnetcfg GUI or even, command line that's when I became aware of the current state of host networking. I know VMware is working hard on networking given some of the beta SR activity I've seen.

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barnys
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I feel embarrassed that I sent another request from you for the other question I had and probably you were posting your response at the same time. Sorry for the generating extra work and thank you so much for your responses!

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rcardona2k
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>I see your name all over the place here. Hands down to you!

>Sorry for the generating extra work and thank you so much for your responses!

You're welcome -- I try to help, although I should probably send VMware HR my paypal address Smiley Wink

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barnys
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oh yeah!!!! and let me know if they need referrals to send them my good comments 🐵

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barnys
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No mention of Parallels conversion in the documentation! :oS

Will this work? do I have to do anything to my Parallels VM prior to running this (yes! aside from backing up my current Parallels VM in case I screw it up!)?

I will give it a try and report back.

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rcardona2k
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Yes, you can migrate either a Parallels VM or your Boot Camp partition to Fusion. Fellow poster, tirmidi has summarized it here:

Important:[/b] VMware Converter is now released at http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/ so substitute the release for the beta discussed in the threads below.

How to migrate your Parallels XP installation to Fusion

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=66319

Other useful, but gory threads are:

Happy new Fusion user wants to import Parallels VM

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=538763

Converted Parallels VM for use on Fusion--Maddeningly close

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=540196

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