My Windows 10 x64 1709 recently went through a power outage. I did not shut down my VMWare Workstation Pro 14.1.1 build-7528167 before my UPS was scheduled to shut down the OS. Totally my fault after reviewing the UPS configuration set up. I didn't lose any data, however, VMWare Workstation Pro software did end up becoming corrupt. Since it was installed on a separate hard drive, I had to reinstall VMWare Workstation Pro. Guests are back up and running. However, on the host machine the VMware Network Adapter VMnet1, VMnet8, etc that used to be there are no longer present.
VMnet adapter missing:
From my other system that has a working VMWare Workstation Pro environment, it has the expected VMnet adapters:
I have attempted to REPAIR the installation, but that did not resolve the issue. I have attempted to uninstall and reinstall VMWare Workstation Pro 14, keeping the VMWare configuration settings, but that did not generate the VMWare adapters. I do see during the installation phase that it attempts to generate the adapters but I am not sure if it is trying to generate the VMnet adapters on the host or if that is something else, but in the end it does not reproduce the VMnet1/VMnet8, etc.
What happens is that I can ping the host machine from the guest virtual machine, but I cannot ping the guest virtual machine from the host machine. The guest virtual machine can reach out to the internet just fine. So question, do I need a VMnet adapter in order for the host machine to reach the guest virtual machine? Am I identifying the problem here or am I looking at an unrelated issue? If I need those VMware VMnet adapters, how do I get the VMnet to regenerate short of reinstalling the OS? Anything in the registry I can change/delete/add to start over for the VMWare Workstation Pro without having to dramatically affect all my guest machines (20+)?
On a side note: VMWare needs to create some kind of suspend feature that works with UPS so that before the UPS can shut down VMWare Workstation Pro can safely suspend all guest machines before the host OS shuts down.
Thanks for any assistance on this subject.
FYI, issue resolved. I was just about to reinstall the OS through my USB stick but decided to poke around the OS repair "Advanced options". Next, noticed the "System Restore" option, it seemed to have one system restore point listed on the same day the power outage occurred. I'm not sure what triggered it to create the system restore point? With nothing else to lose, I selected that and it recovered everything except for the VMWare Workstation Pro program. It showed my original Network Connections that included VMnet1 and VMnet8. I just had to install VMWare Workstation Pro again and looks like everything is back in order once again. This saved so much potential time for me. Happy happy, yay yay!
From the VMware Workstation menu bar select Edit > Virtual Network Editor... to launch the Virtual Network Editor. Click on Change Settings on the lower right to enable editing of the VMNets. Ensure Connect a host virtual adaptor to this network is checked to create the virtual adaptor on the host.
The adaptors are only needed on the host if the host needs to be part of the particular virtual network.
As to your ping problem, what is the Network Adaptor setting used by your guests?
Thanks for replying, So I checked the following screenshots below but still did not see VMnet generate:
and:
Guest network adapters are settings are set to the following:
They are configured using NAT so that only the host can reach the guest systems. I realized that even though the guest system can ping the host IP address, it is unable to UNC to the host share (it used to work no problem). Very strange, but alas... if I must reinstall the OS, it is what it is.
I'll take any other suggestions if you have them, thanks.
Try the "Restore Defaults" in the Virtual Network Editor (VNE). Power down all VMs first before trying this.
Option (1) Restore defaults in VNE
If Option #1, does not work try the following
Option (2) Execute a "Network Reset" of the Windows 10 host and then "Restore Defaults" again from VNE or "Repair Installation".
Note "Network Reset" will wipe out any VPN and WiFi hotspot settings you have for the host machine.
Attempted to "Restore Defaults" from the Virtual Network Editor but that did not fix it. "Network Reset" on the other hand, it removed all my network adapters and unfortunately I am no longer able to reinstall the network drivers. I tried to install the original network driver (e.g. XPS-8910_Network_Driver_TTTGW_WN32_1.0.0.32_A00.EXE) but the installation package would hang forever during the GUI install process before displaying something like "installation is taking longer than normal, do you want to continue?", either options "Yes or No" just ends the installation. Well, "Yes" ends with installation successful, but not really installing anything. "No", aborts the installation I think. I also tried to update the yellow bang network driver from Device Manager and it also fails to install the driver (I unpackaged the network driver contents into a folder), always seems to just hang on the GUI process for 10-20 minutes. Welp, thanks for the suggestions anyways. I might end up with a few broken programs but I think I'll go ahead and reinstall the OS, because I do need the VMs *sigh*.
FYI, issue resolved. I was just about to reinstall the OS through my USB stick but decided to poke around the OS repair "Advanced options". Next, noticed the "System Restore" option, it seemed to have one system restore point listed on the same day the power outage occurred. I'm not sure what triggered it to create the system restore point? With nothing else to lose, I selected that and it recovered everything except for the VMWare Workstation Pro program. It showed my original Network Connections that included VMnet1 and VMnet8. I just had to install VMWare Workstation Pro again and looks like everything is back in order once again. This saved so much potential time for me. Happy happy, yay yay!
Had the same issue but only after bridging the adapter to my Wifi one. I didn't need to reinstall Workstation Pro to bring back the VMNet8 adapter though. The following is a quick fix:
Go to "Edit" - > "Virtual Network Editor ..." -> "Change Defaults" -> "Restore Defaults"
VMWare Workstation Pro should uninstall all network installations and reinstall them again with their default settings. This will restore the VMNet8 adapter.