More than 4 NICs in a VM

[mdix]

Is it possible to have more than 4 NICs in a virtual machine.

For example, is it possible to increase the number of NICs on file basis? The GUI does not allow you to have more than 4.

Would having more than 4 NICs be supported by VMware?

I am using ESX 3.5.

[alanrenouf]

The maximum number of nics for a virtual machine is 4 because of the chipset the virtual machines are based on. Intel 440BX-based

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Alan Renouf

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant

UK

[weinstein5]

as alan indicated it is not - it is a hard limit of the VM

[Ken_Cline]

I haven't done this in a LONG TIME - and if it works, it would DEFINITELY be 100% UNSUPPORTED...

Back in the dark ages, you could manually edit your .vmx file, remove the SCSI disk controller, and add a fifth Ethernet controller. This means that you will have to be running your guest OS from either a floppy or CD image (i.e. a live CD with a firewall appliance).

The only other option I'm aware of is to use Virtual Guest Tagging (VGT) mode VLAN tagging and have the VM manage your 802.1Q VLAN tags. By going this route, you can support connection to as many different networks as you want - as long as you're using 802.1Q in your environment.

Ken Cline

Technical Director, Virtualization

Wells Landers

VMware Communities User Moderator

[beaunewcomb]

why exactly do you really need 4 nics? You may take a different approach and just bind more IPs to your interfaces? I know that doesn't directly answer your question (as none of these do) but can you take a different approach? If not, why are actual NICs required?

[malaysiavm]

Maybe is just for fun to R & D and test this out :smileygrin:

Malaysia VMware Communities -