NAT crashed with Workstation Pro 12.1.0

[snobis]

Yesterday I upgrade to Workstation Pro 12.1.0 on my Linux host. I mainly run Windows VMs and connect to these via Remote Desktop. VMs get NAT LAN access and therefore I configured NAT port forwarding to the Windows Remote Desktop ports. This setup worked great for quite some years.

With the update to 12.1.0 (from 12.0.1) this is broken. The Windows guest has network access (e.g. it can access SMB shares in the network) and everything seems to be fine, all the necessary processes (e.g. vmware-natd) are running, '/usr/bin/vmware-networks --status' says everything is running. Then I try to connect to the Windows VM via Remote Desktop (I'm on a Mac and use Jump Desktop as client). BOOM. Connection failed and vmware-natd crashed. Now vmware-networks says that the NAT service is not running.

Today I downgraded to 12.0.1. and the exact same setup works without any problems.

So I assume something changed in the NAT area. Am I missing some configuration options or is there a bug in the new vmware-natd?

[thiboty]

I have same problem on Windows 10 host running Centos as VM.

Everything works fine until I try a remote connection on a port, this cause on host the stop of VMware Nat Service.

[xindayu · Accepted solution]

Sorry that Workstation 12.1.0 do have this bug.

We have an internal bug to track this issue.

Currently would you please revert to use Workstation 12.0.1 instead?

Thanks!

[snobis]

BTW: Is there a more direct, simpler way to report bugs? I tried the support pages but I had only 30 days support and was unable to open a support ticket (I'd like to have longer support, but it was not available to buy on upgrading; all longer support periods were unable to select).

[gptbr]

Hello, any update about when this will get fixed? I'm having the same issue on a Windows 10 host and Vmware Workstation 12.1 Pro

[4llan]

I almost got crazy trying to figure why vmnet-natd crash in my Linux host.

Downgrading to Workstation 12.0.1 until the issue is fixed.

[RMMcMahon]

I am having same issue here. Please fix this bug!

[4llan]

For those experiencing this problem:

Replace /usr/bin/vmnet-natd from version 12.1.0 to 12.0.1.

Worked fine for me and I don't have any nat-trouble anymore.

Downgrading my Workstation was a terrible choice in my case. Just copied /usr/bin/vmnet-natd from 12.0.1 installation and replaced after installs 12.1.0.

I hope that VMware team revert the code of natd to 12.0.1 state.

Cheers

[clappm]

It there an ETA on when this defect will be addressed?

thanks!

[Aaron44126]

Same issue here, created a NAT rule to allow access to a web server running on a local Linux VM.  (Host OS is Windows 10.)  Every time you try to access it, the NAT service crashes.  Took me a while to figure out what was going on, I thought I was crazy and the configuration was broken.

Guess I'll revert to 12.0.1...

[Edit]

Workaround --- Taking a page from user 4llan above.

I installed VMware Workstation 12.0.1 (in a VM) and grabbed the vmnat.exe file (C:\Windows\SysWOW64).

I stopped the VMware NAT service on the host, plopped this file over top of the old one on the host, and started the service again.

All seems good now.

[vwal]

Oh, a bug! This ate several hours of my time today... and now finally I find this page detailing the problem. Windows 10, Ubuntu 14.04 here, the same issue; I might get the NAT stay up for a SSH connection, but trying to connect to a NATted HTTP port from a remote system and down it goes.

Swapping in vmnat.exe from 12.0 fixed it for me, too. Hope to see the fixed release soon!

[xBytez]

I thought I'd contribute and drop the .exe for vmnat from 12.0.1 here so people don't have to manually downgrade then grab the file.

You need to replace this file with the file in C:\Windows\SYSWOW64\vmnat.exe

MD5 sums:

12.0.1 bbc9253e7f064791f389852da6c855e5 vmnat.exe

12.1.0 df89a1667d769377ca5441a6f62f9031 vmnat.exe

[dariusd]

Workstation 12.1.1 has just been released, and it looks like it resolves the issue of NAT crashing when port-forwarding is configured.  Try installing Workstation 12.1.1 and let us know if the problem is resolved for you.

VMware Workstation 12 Pro Version 12.1.1 Release Notes

Download VMware Workstation Pro

Cheers,

--

Darius

[4llan]

I can confirm that the problem's gone with Workstation Pro 12.1.1 (Linux).

Thank you very much!