"Custom: Specific virtual network" and "LAN Segments" missing from VMware 12.5 on Ubuntu

[chrischarles]

I have a need to setup several VMs on Ubuntu (running Xubuntu) that use the "Custom: Specific virtual network" and "LAN Segments" features, located under:

"Edit virtual machine settings" > Hardware > "Network Adapter"

However, on a newly built Ubuntu (Xubuntu) 16.04 machine, with a fresh download of VMware Workstation Player (VMware-Player-12.5.7-5813279.x86_64.bundle) downloaded from the VMware website (VMware Workstation Player - VMware Products ), the section for adding and customizing LAN segments does not seem to be available.

I am able to launch a successful VM on Ubuntu, without any issue, except the missing Network Adapters.

I have the exact same version / build running on Windows, and the correct features are listed there.

I have already tried to uninstall and re-install as the ROOT user on Ubuntu, but still cannot see those features present.

Is there something I need to enable in order to make those feature visible?

Windows Screenshot:

Ubuntu Screenshot:

FYI - the "Virtual Network Editor" settings are the same on both instances:

[parmarr]

This link Configure a Virtual Machine to Use a LAN Segment can help answer the question:

Configuring LAN Segments

[continuum]

Are you using Workstation Pro on Windows and Workstation Pro on Linux or is that just the crippled VMplayer version on Linux ?

[chrischarles]

@ continuum:

I am using VMWare Workstation 12 Player (free version) -- ver 12.5.7 build 5813279 over Xubuntu (Ubuntu) 16.04

Is that function not available on the "free" version of VMWare player on Ubuntu?

[continuum]

Hello
I would assume that those features are not implemented in VMplayer.
Suggestion (not sure if that still works but it used to ...)
Install Workstation instead of VMplayer.
If xou do not enter a WS-license number you can run VMs via the VMplayer which is part of a WS-setup.

Or you use unconfigured vmnets instead of LAN Segments and specify the vmnet-number manually in the vmx-file.

[chrischarles]

Right.  So to avoid anytime of extra bottlenecks / issues using VMware Player over Ubuntu, I went ahead and purchased VMWare Workstation PRO.

After doing a full uninstall, and re-installing the newly purchased *. bundle file:

Uninstalled the old 129 MB VMware-Player-12.5.7-5813279.x86_64.bundle

>>>

Installed the new 456 MB VMware-Workstation-Full-12.5.7-5813279.x86_64.bundle

...

Same issue!

I have opened up a support ticket directly with VMware as I am now out $249.00 USD that was paid for the license.

I will update this thread with any info I get from them, unless the community knows the resolution to this particular issue.

Thanks again for your assistance in this matter.

[continuum]

Can you please explain how you use LAN-Segments ?
Maybe you can acchieve the same with clever usage of the vmnets and just do not how to do it ....

[chrischarles]

Of course, I would be happy to.

The (3rd party purchased) application that needs to run over multiple VMs on the same machine is hard-coded to use certain interface names associated to a specific MAC address.

While with the buggy version of VMware Workstation PRO, I can still manually enter a MAC Address, I cannot assign the network adapter to a specific interface name (there are no options displayed to be click on), which makes the 3rd party application useless.

Secondly, I also need to assign yet ANOTHER network adapter interface, specifically to VMnet8, that I have configured via the "Virtual Network Adapter" tool from VMware.

As the function does not exist (not displayed)  "Custom:  Specific virtual network" in the Ubuntu / Workstation PRO combination, this also renders the 3rd party application unusable.

There are a total of 6 network adapters per VM, that need to be customized.

As mentioned previously, all of these features work (are displayed) just fine in the FREE version of VMware Player / Windows combination.

[screenshots above]

[continuum]

> As the function does not exist (not displayed)  "Custom:  Specific virtual network" in the Ubuntu / Workstation PRO combination, this also renders the 3rd party application unusable.
Sorry - I still do not understand what you are missing.
You can configure any virtual networkcard that you add to a VM as "bridged", "hostonly" , "nat" or "custom"
This is completely independant from the GUI as you can directly specify what you need in the vmx-file.
Please read my notes here:sanbarrow.com
So you can assign 6 completely different options for those 6 nics you need per VM.
If you want a independant network connection between 2 VMs you can assign any vmnet number between vmnet0 - vmnet9 (recent versions allow even more vmnets)
The only reason that comes to my mind  for using LAN-segments is the speed limitation feature.

[chrischarles · Accepted solution]

Ok - so your link to your page sanbarrow.com actually pointed me to the right direction !!!

I compared the "working" version of VMX file on a Windows instance, where the GUI options are available, to the VMX file on Ubuntu, where for some reason the same GUI options do not appear.

Reading through your page, I realized that I can copy specific settings in the VMX file to enable the features that are needed.

So, while the default Ethernet settings in a VMX file in Ubuntu look like this:

OLD VMX
ethernet1.present = "TRUE" ethernet1.connectionType = "hostonly" ethernet1.virtualDev = "e1000" ethernet1.wakeOnPcktRcv = "FALSE" ethernet1.addressType = "generated"

Copying the lines I need from the "working" VMX on Windows to Ubuntu looks something like this:

NEW VMX

ethernet0.present = "TRUE" ethernet0.connectionType = "custom" ethernet0.bsdname = "" ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000" ethernet0.displayname = "" ethernet0.linkstatepropagation.enable = "FALSE" ethernet0.wakeOnPcktRcv = "FALSE" ethernet0.addressType = "generated" ethernet0.vnet = "vmnet8" ethernet1.present = "TRUE" ethernet1.connectionType = "pvn" ethernet1.virtualDev = "e1000" ethernet1.pvnID = "52 a3 d0 a4 61 bd 74 8a-c4 8f dc 2c d7 e8 7d 1d" ethernet1.wakeOnPcktRcv = "FALSE" ethernet1.addressType = "generated"

An also had to add (append) the following to the ~/.vmware/preferences file (to map the LAN Segment ID to LAN Segment NAME

~/.vmware/preferences
pref.namedPVNs.count = "1" pref.namedPVNs0.name = "net_a" pref.namedPVNs0.pvnID = "52 a3 d0 a4 61 bd 74 8a-c4 8f dc 2c d7 e8 7d 1d"

So what you end up with, is as follows (see screenshots below):

Before changes

After config change:

After changes

It is important to note that if you do add more / extra network adapters, the "Custom... " and "LAN Segement" options still do not appear, you must manually configure them in the VMX file, after you have added them via the VMware interface.

@ continuum:  Thank you for your guidance in this matter.

I hope that VMware fixes this GUI limitation in future releases, to make this process less painful.

[paulgomc]

Hello, I wanted to come by and provide a point of view, I was mistakenly modifying several card options in the .vmx file and only when adding, not modifying these options and closing and reopening the vmware application, the list of custom options came out, thanks .

ethernet9.vnet="vmnet10"
ethernet9.displayName="vmnet10"

This is modified depending on the vmware-netcfg window respecting the brigde and NAT, the remaining interfaces depending on the virtualized OS are modified:

ethernetx.connectionType = "custom"

Changes over Fedora 37

[fabroccoli]

Hello, Could you please send me your ~/.vmware/preferences file.
I'm using vmware version 17.0 with ubuntu 22.04 and I can't see  LAN segment and custom ...
thank you, regards,