How to enable promiscuous network access for ever

[SpiderIce]

I have a Windows 7 work VM (network sniffer installed) and a ESXi 4.1 VM that always give me the message "A virtual machine is attempting to monitor all network traffic, which requires administrator access. Type your password to allow VMware Fusion to make changes."

I know that they want and need promiscuous access and want to know if there is a way to alway enable this for the two VMs so I no longer get this access request?

VMware Fusion v3.1.1

Mac OS X 10.6.4

[parpar]

Hi SpiderIce,

I second your problem. I know there is a kludge to run fusion with root privileges (sudo "/Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/MacOS/vmware"), but that doesn't help me as I start vmware headless from a bootscript. The (linux) vm that is started during the bootsequence needs promiscuous mode on the NIC, so I need to go in manually, start up the vmware UI and enter the admin password: a real nuisance.

I would like to allow promiscous mode on a permanent basis (looking at the messages in this forum, it has been a request since fusion 1.1)

Thanks,

Paul

[admin]

Thanks for the feedback, we're tracking this feature request as PR 616863.

parpar, if you could find me links to the other requests that would help. I took a quick look and didn't see anything that sounded like people wanting Fusion to remember promiscuous mode settings, it was mostly people asking why Fusion was asking for permissions.

[parpar]

Thanks for taking this up as a feature request! Actually there are about 270 posts on this forum on the subject and I agree with you that many are questions that either ask how to enable it or why they are prompted. A flag on the NIC settings 'allow promiscuous mode' along with some documentation would remedy these as well, don't you agree?

Here is my search for the posts:

promiscuous mode search

Anxious to see this implemented,

Paul

[admin]

Here is my search for the posts:

promiscuous mode search

Thanks, but a quick glance shows that these are not related to your specific request, so I can't use them to back up your request.

[parpar]

Does this mean you have withdrawn the feature request? Would be a real bummer

[admin]

Does this mean you have withdrawn the feature request?

No, but management may prioritize things differently if 2000 users report a bug/want a feature vs. if 2 users do so.

[SpiderIce]

Parpar,

Thanks for the tip, navigating to "/Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/MacOS" Then running "sudo ./vmware" did prevent the message from coming up but gave me a terminal window that has to stay running.

I did find this KB that looked promising http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=287 but could not find any /dev/vmnet* devices created by vmware fusion.

Just wanted to update the post with my findings

[parpar · Accepted solution]

There is no such thing as a '/dev/vmnet' on OS X, the article you are referring to is to a Linux host system, where all device files are located in /dev/. The solution thus only works for VMWare running on a Linux host and apparently there is also a (different) solution in ESX (the 'bare metal' version of VMWare).

Closing the terminal is possible by issuing 'sudo open -ga vmware\ fusion' in a terminal window. After you enter the password on the prompt it will start fusion running under root privileges (make sure it is what you want and understand the consequences!). After that you can close the terminal window.

Bests,

Paul

[philbad]

Hi Etung,

I would find the ability to put a vnic into promiscuous mode without entering the password useful as well. I often do course prep on my mac for example with an ESXi host and vMA and need multiple nics to manage from the command line. Although I could run Fusion as root I am undecided whether it's easier just to enter my password three or four times!

Only another 1997 more requests to get! (c:=

[tomtomtom111]

Hi,

i am wondering, if this feature has ever made its way on the developers TODO List. It has been a year since this topic has been discussed and it seems there is still no solution (version 4.1) 😞 Is there any hope?

[capveg]

+1 for this feature

Also, I've done something (what?) such that I can't even get the dialog prompt anymore.  On booting a VM that wants promiscuous mode, I now get a dialog saying:

---

Network Monitoring has been disabled.

VMware Fusion will not ask for permission to monitor the network until the next time you disconnect and reconnect the network device.

---

But, unfortunately, when I disconnect and reconnect the device, I only get the same dialog error again.  I've even gone as far as removing the virtual interface and adding it again, and still get the same error dialog.

Anyone have any ideas?

[adamw]

See this link: http://www.jedi.be/blog/2010/12/09/automated-vmware-esx-installation-even-in-vmware-fusion/

Uner the title "Overcoming the dialog: A virtual machine is attempting to monitor all network traffic, which requires administrator access, type your password to allow VMWARE Fusion to make changes"

Obviously this has some security implications, but I don't get the message any more. It should be better than running VMWare as root

[marnixava]

I tried that 'sudo open -ga vmware\ fusion' command.  It did open vmware fusion and my guest host did start up (I have it set to start automatically when vmware starts).  When I then tried to snoop network traffic in the guest, I still got a popup in the host asking me to authenticate/approve the monitoring of the network.  I was using vmware fusion 12.2.3 .  Maybe things have changed since the "sudo" solution was mentioned here (over a decade ago!).

I would like my guest system to always have the authority to monitor the network traffic.  I'll continue looking for solutions.

[Technogeezer]

Are you using Fusion Player or Pro?

[SvenGus]

Another solution could be this one (while in the Pro edition there should also be an option in the network preferences):

sudo touch "/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/promiscAuthorized"