Host-only networking issues

[DigitalHI]

Specs:

VMWare Fusion 11.1.1

MacOS Catalina

I'm trying to setup a private network between two VMs. From what I've read on here, both in docs and other posts, I want a host-only network so that it looks like the attached.

I've got this setup in VMware Fusion (excerpt from /Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/networking):

answer VNET_2_DHCP yes

answer VNET_2_DHCP_CFG_HASH 018682619C41D2463A6F33115408E8705D9D45A1

answer VNET_2_DISPLAY_NAME  my vmnet

answer VNET_2_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0

answer VNET_2_HOSTONLY_SUBNET 192.168.221.0

answer VNET_2_NAT no

I have two problems - 1) one VM keeps reverting to "Auto detect" networking and 2) once they're both connected to the network they can't seem to see/talk to each other.

Thoughts?

[RDPetruska · Accepted solution]

No, you want a "guest-only" network.  The host-only does exactly what it sounds like - a virtual machine can only connect to the host, no other virtual machines.

Just use an unused VMnet switch - select Custom, and specify which VMnet.  Use the same one for each guest VM.

[nancyz]

Hi DigitalHI ,

     How did you add vmnet2 network, did you add it via Fusion -> Preferences -> Netowrk?

I have two problems - 1) one VM keeps reverting to "Auto detect" networking and 2) once they're both connected to the network they can't seem to see/talk to each other.

For problem 1, could you append all the contents in networking file (/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/networking) here?

For problem 2, did you allow the traffic in your vm firewall setting? Please make sure the firewall does not block the traffic.

[DigitalHI]

Thank you both!

After I started looking into your questions it dawned on me that since one of the VMs was a downloaded machine so I started digging into it's .vmx file. There were some settings in there that seemed to conflict with what I was trying to do. Once I removed the custom network, re-added vmnet2 and adjusted the settings, and removed the entries from the .vmx file, things seem to be happier now. I'm not sure if the image was created under Workstation and that caused some issues or something.

[DigitalHI]

I'm curious why this "guest-only" network isn't listed in the Fusion docs here: VMware Knowledge Base

That's where I got "host-only" from.

[RDPetruska]

It's not an official name - it's not listed that way in any of the products.  But by description, that's what the network is.  So some of us long-timers have just labelled it as such - it makes it easier to discuss it, as it clearly defines what is going on in the network configuration.