VMware Communities
VladimirVlasov
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

WMware workstation 5.5, undocumented parameter allow64bitVlance

Hi.

I tried to install 64 bits version of SLES9 on VMware workstation 5.5 and see following message window on power on:

"The vlance NIC is not supported for 64-bit guests in this release. Please consult the documentation for the appropriate type of NIC to use with 64-bit guests. Failed to configure ethernet0."

Searching over the Internet I found that I need to specify following in the vmx file:

ethernet0.allow64bitVlance = "true"

I tried it and it work. So, the only think makes me confused - I found it on this communities site, not in official VMware documentation.

Googling "allow64bitVlance site:vmware.com" shows pages from communities.vmware.com only.

Does anybody know why such useful parameter is not documented? Is it because of some possible issues or what?

Reply
0 Kudos
1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
ksc
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
Jump to solution

"Not supported" means QA never ran with this configuration, or that there are corner cases known to be broken. Many, many "not supported" configurations run perfectly fine; the only difference is whether VMware Support will help you with the configuration. (And they won't for a VLance in a 64-bit VM.)

For ws5.5, the answer is both. (1) QA only ran 64-bit VMs with e1000, and (2) the vmxnet driver was not ported to 64-bit in 5.5, so we are missing a critical part of guest tools for this configuration, which makes it not supported.

Now, if you are only using the vlance functionality (and not the paravirtual vmxnet driver), the lack of a 64-bit vmxnet driver won't bother you.

I believe more recent versions (6.0 or 6.5) do contain a 64-bit vmxnet driver.

View solution in original post

Reply
0 Kudos
3 Replies
RDPetruska
Leadership
Leadership
Jump to solution

It is not documented because it is not supported. Why did you not simply use the E1000 virtual NIC which is the default NIC for all 64-bit guests?

Reply
0 Kudos
VladimirVlasov
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

Well, if it is not supported then why virtual machine is running with this parameter?

Or may be it is fake and NIC is not 64 bits vlance actually?

Regarding E1000 - I'm running simulation of real HW platform on VMware and it's soft expecting something similar to vlance for running, there are predefined drivers.

I think it is not suitable to migrate to E1000.

Reply
0 Kudos
ksc
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
Jump to solution

"Not supported" means QA never ran with this configuration, or that there are corner cases known to be broken. Many, many "not supported" configurations run perfectly fine; the only difference is whether VMware Support will help you with the configuration. (And they won't for a VLance in a 64-bit VM.)

For ws5.5, the answer is both. (1) QA only ran 64-bit VMs with e1000, and (2) the vmxnet driver was not ported to 64-bit in 5.5, so we are missing a critical part of guest tools for this configuration, which makes it not supported.

Now, if you are only using the vlance functionality (and not the paravirtual vmxnet driver), the lack of a 64-bit vmxnet driver won't bother you.

I believe more recent versions (6.0 or 6.5) do contain a 64-bit vmxnet driver.

Reply
0 Kudos