VMWare Workstation Replication Issue

[louisfrenchy]

Hello,

I setup 4 x virtual machines independently (VM 1, 2, 3 and ). However I have 3 x virtual machines that are getting real time updates from each other . Whatetver I do one of the VM (2, 3 or 4) in Windows 10 gets replicated on the other two. How do I turn this off ? Am not sure how this happened as the VM machine installs for 3 and 4 were done without cloning. It was fresh install from ISO.

Any feedback is appreciated.

Thank You

[ThompsG]

Hi there,

This is not a feature of Workstation unless you are using linked clones and modifying the base image. Maybe post (attach) the vmx files from the four VMs to help confirm.

Kind regards.

[louisfrenchy]

Hello ThompsG,

Thank you for a response. Where do I get the .vmx files. I looked in the directory where I setup the VMs but cannot find .vmx ? VM 1 does not sync with the other 3. Only VM 2 , 3 and 4 are doing this with each other.

[louisfrenchy]

Hello,

I found the files. Here they are.

[ThompsG]

Hi louisfrenchy,

There should be a vmx file in the same directory as the VMDK files, I.e. where you created the VM.

You may not see the extension vmx due to Windows hiding it however the type should say “VMware virtual machine configuration”

Kind regards.

[ThompsG]

Thanks - checking files shortly.

Kind regards.

[ThompsG]

Hi there,

Checked all 4 files and cannot see anything that is amiss (maybe others can?). The VMs all have the same display name which makes it a little confusing but besides that all four have different MAC addresses, UUID and other things that make them unique.

Can you confirm what you are seeing? From what I understand if you create a new file (file1.txt) on the desktop of VM2, that this file will appear on VM3 and VM4 - is that correct?

Kind regards.

[louisfrenchy]

1) The hostnames were created by VMWare with their own MAC although it's on same PC and hard disk.

2) The directories where each VMs  are installed are in  seperate directories.

3) When I create a text file on VM 2 (say on desktop), it also appears on VM 3 and 4).

4) If I install a program on VM 2 that creates a shortcut on desktop. Only the shortcut gets replicated on VM 3 and 4. It does not replicate the install files from VM 2.

5) If I create a folder on the C:\ drive on VM 2, it does not get replicated on VM 3 and 4.

6) So it appears the Desktop is getting synchronized for VM 2, 3 AND 4.

Hope this clarifies the issue at hand.

[ThompsG]

Okay - thanks for that.

Can you also confirm if a file is created on the desktop for VM3 (or VM4) does this get "replicated" to the others (excluding VM1)?

Kind regards.

[louisfrenchy]

HI,

1) If I create a file on VM 3  desktop, it gets created on VM 2 andVM 4 desktop also. If I delete the file from VM 2 desktop, it gets deleted on VM 3 and 4.

2) VM 1 desktop is not affected by this at all. Only VM 2, 3 and 4 are synchronizing their desktops.

[wila]

Hi,

As you already said, it is not something in the configuration of the VM.

The only explanation I can come up with is that OP has installed something in the guests that does this.

For example drop-box or One Drive or another cloud platform product that takes care of synchronizing data across folders on different machines.

--

Wil

[louisfrenchy]

Hi,

May be this relates to the microsoft windows account. When the VMs were setup during Windows 10 setup it asks to provide a Microsoft account if you have one. The same Microsoft account was used during Windows setup. So logging in using a Microsoft account perhaps is making the linking as the account knows about all the Windows 10. That's the only common thing that was done during the setup process of each of the 4 x VMs. May be anyone can comment ?