BUG: Workstation Pro 15 keeps on changing NAT to Bridged

[FMware]

I'm using Workstation Pro 15.0.1

I opened an old VM (hardware level : workstation 6.5-7).  I changed its network connection to NAT but every time I started up the VM, network connection is changed back to Bridged.

I upgraded the VM hardware to version 15 but the same problem still happened.  This is a serious bug.

Someone please report it to VMWare's R&D

[RDPetruska]

Not sure if this will change, but if you update to 15.0.2, does the problem persist?

Also, are there snapshots with this VM?  Trying to figure out if it is somehow reverting to previous settings on power-down.

[monkeynut]

I had a similar thing in that I needed to change the MAC address of a copied VM. I edited the vmx file with a new MAC address only to find that on booting the VM the old values were put back. This indicates that the old values are stored somewhere else and are used to update the vmx file. However I got around that by editing the vmx file. I changed every occurrence of ethernet0 to ethernet1 and lo and behold I got assigned the new MAC address!

If you want to try this make a copy of the vmx file first just in case!

Have fun,

MN

[cj018]

I have the same issue. I am trying to force VM to have the same MAC address (edit .vmx file), join a NAT network, and have VMWare dhcp hand that VM/mac a static IP.

But this bug means that my assigning the VM to NAT networking breaks every time I turn on the VM.

Please fix!

I verified this bug is occurring on the latest and greatest, 15.0.3 which I just upgraded to.

[continuum]

The symptoms you describe could be caused by a misconfigured vmx-file.
If you want that we check it - post a screenshot of the Virtual Network Editor and the vmx-file.

[cj018]

Hi continuum, I will post some info. But can you be more specific what part of those files I should post?

Thanks,

See attached file - it shows .vmx settings, vmnetdhcp.conf, and Virtual Network editor.

Also, see these log lines from the vmware.log for this VM.

It is a mystery, and probably a hard-coded bug. No combination of changing .vmx, dhcp conf and restarting Windows VMWare DHCP service had any effect.

As soon as I either 1) changed any other VM setting in the GUI, or 2) launched the VM, the network would change immediately from NAT to Bridged, and that new setting would be overwritten and saved in my .vmx setting file.

019-03-18T15:14:51.044-04:00| vmx| I125: ConfigCheck: No rules file found. Checks are disabled.

2019-03-18T15:14:51.044-04:00| vmx| I125: changing directory to D:\VMs\dev02\.

2019-03-18T15:14:51.044-04:00| vmx| I125: Config file: D:\VMs\dev02\dev02.vmx

2019-03-18T15:14:51.045-04:00| vmx| I125: Vix: [mainDispatch.c:4233]: VMAutomation_ReportPowerOpFinished: statevar=1, newAppState=1873, success=1 additionalError=0

2019-03-18T15:14:51.045-04:00| vmx| I125: Vix: [mainDispatch.c:4233]: VMAutomation_ReportPowerOpFinished: statevar=2, newAppState=1878, success=1 additionalError=0

2019-03-18T15:14:51.065-04:00| vmx| A100: ConfigDB: Setting ethernet0.connectionType = "bridged"

2019-03-18T15:14:51.089-04:00| vmx| I125: VMXVmdbCbVmVmxExecState: Exec state change requested to state poweredOn without reset, soft, softOptionTimeout: 0.

2019-03-18T15:14:51.089-04:00| vmx| I125: Tools: sending 'OS_PowerOn' (state = 3) state change request

2019-03-18T15:14:51.089-04:00| vmx| I125: Tools: Delaying state change request to state 3.

2019-03-18T15:14:51.089-04:00| vmx| W115: PowerOn

[continuum]

Did you manually edit your vmx-file ?

Please read sanbarrow.com

especially the last chapter about custom settings.

Please try the settings I listed there.

Your vmx file specifies to use nat and it also specifies vmnet0.

Both settings contradict each other.

If you did not manually edit your vmx-file Iwould agree with you and consider this as a bug.

[cj018]

Continuum, thanks for your response and help.

I tried 2 approaches, both of which failed to allow me to set the VM to nat.

1. I took a known good working VM, where I had never made any manual edits.

This VM was in Bridged mode in the configuration GUI, and in the GUI, I changed it from Bridged to NAT.

The result was that as soon as the VM booted up, it reverted to Bridged.

Nothing I did could change it to NAT. I changed it to nat while running and it lost those changes on shutting down.

2. The other approach was, I edited the vmnetdhcp.conf and vmx files.

I thought by using various resources online I could figure out how to accomplish my goal of assigning a static Mac, static IP, still using dhcp, using Nat.

My previous post was from my attempt #2.

Before making any changes, I had saved off the original vmx file, so I am able to revert to it at any time to test it.

I used many resources to carefully make the manual edits, including

http://sanbarrow.com/vmx/vmx-network.html

http://sanbarrow.com/vmx/vmx-network-advanced.html

https://communities.vmware.com/message/1888335#1888335

https://pubs.vmware.com/workstation-9/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.ws.using.doc%2FGUID-495D93E9-06B...

Attached is the screen shot of the settings from my attempt #1 above (the simple case, only changing a known working bridged VM in the GUI from bridged to nat).

"original vmx file.png"

(Of course the attached settings are altered when I try to change from bridged to nat  in the GUI. but as soon as the VM boots up, those changes are lost, and the vmx file still contains "bridged".)

[continuum]

Please try this parameters:

ethernet0.present= "true"

ethernet0.startConnected = "true"

ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000e"

ethernet0.connectionType = "custom"

ethernet0.vnet = "vmnet8"
instead of .... grrr - would you mind and attach one of your existing vmx-files ?
As textfiles - not as screenshots please...

[KeyVM]

Check your .vmx file, remove the line which contains "networkName", e.g.:

ethernet1.networkName = "NAT"

Works for me (VMware Workstation Pro 16.1.1)