Big Sur OS Networking stops working when exiting Fusion 12

[VmareJohn]

Hi,

Like many here, I have been a long time user of Fusion on Mac OS X. 

I have a very odd problem I never encountered before... basically, networking on any of my Fusion 12 VM does not work anymore since upgrading to Big Sur, but even worse... when I quite Fusion, now my network/internet access on my Mac stops too! No matter how much I try to stop/start the Mac networking service (ifconfig up/down on en0) it doesn't work... I am left with having to reboot the Mac to get my connectivity back!

Here is what I have done:

Catelina + Fusion 11

Then upgraded to Fusion 12.

Everything works fine, I have a mix of Ubuntu and Windows 10 VMs.

Then upgraded to Big Sur.

Then upgraded to the latest version of Fusion 12.

None of the VM network is working and when I exit VMware the native Mac OS X network stops working. In fact the Mac OS X network even breaks sometimes whilst using some VM.

I have no issue with my Mac network as long as I do not run Fusion...

I have tried to remove Fusion 12 completely (in /Application, /Library) then reinstall Fusion 12 by downloading the latest image, then removed all my VM and just started installing a new VM from scratch (a Kali Linux image) and right in the middle of the installation the network stops working on my Mac.

I have little snitch installed, but appart from that nothing else that should be related to the network.

I have tried to remove little snitch and also redo everything else (install fo Fusion 12 + setup of new VM) and I still get the same issue.

I am running the latest Big Sur on 11.2.3

Any helps and pointers to troubleshoot the issue is welcome!

Thanks..

S.

[VmareJohn]

After some troubleshooting it appears that Fusion 12 deletes the Mac OS X default route!

Sometimes it is the IPv4 default route and others it is the IPv6 default route...

It happens every time you have a VM that is configured with NAT.

You do not even have to start one of those VM... just start fusion, if you have one VM with NAT enabled in your VM list, then the Mac OS default route is removed and your internet connection on your Mac is cut.

The solution is to convert all VM to Bridge - AUTO DETECT 

Over bridge mode doesn't seem to work for me (i.e.: Bridge - WIFI)

And I mean ALL VM, because if you leave one VM with NAT in your VM list (not sure if it has to be in "pause" state, I stopped troubleshooting after I found my solution)

How is this possible? Looks like a beta software! 

What is infuriating for me is that I bought Fusion 12 (as an upgrade) only a few months ago... but it is not possible to raise a support ticket (I do not seem to have a valid product that qualifies). 

I understand software have bugs, but do not make it hard to raise support ticket and force your paying customers the route of community forums (as great as they are).

So basically, I have now a working a solution... not ideal as I sometimes used NAT to leverage some native VPN, at least I can use my VM again... but I am left very disappointed with this experience!

Now... why did I switch from Parallels to VMware all of those years ago again? 

hum... next renewal might be time to reconsider that move...