VMware Communities
KHavey
Contributor
Contributor

mDNS on guest OS (OBS and NDI)

My host OS is running Ubuntu 20.04 and I am using Workstation 15.5.6 build-16341506

My network and VM topology is as follows:

  1. Physical desktop running Ubuntu 20.04 with VMware Workstation.
    1. Guest VM of Ubuntu 20.04
    2. Guest VM of Windows 10 Pro
  2. Physical laptop running Windows 10 Pro
  3. Physical streaming server (NUC) running Windows 10 Pro

I use my streaming PC as a central point to connect my webcam and microphone for all of my streams. It is running OBS-Studio with the NDI plugin so that I can stream my webcam and mic over my network to multiple PC's.

All of the systems (physical and virtual) are running OBS-Studio using the NDI plugin to try and find my NDI stream. Currently, my physical desktop and my physical laptop are able to see the NDI stream without any issues. I am running a flat network for this setup, which means all of the PC's in question on are the same VLAN, I am not using QoS or any other switch configs on this subnet. All of the systems are on the same subnet, and all systems are able to see each other by IP and by other network services (SSH, FileShares, ICMP, etc...)

The problem that I am having is none of my guest VM's in VMware Workstation are able to see the NDI stream. Digging a little further I found that NDI uses mDNS to identify itself to the different clients. But from what I can tell the multicast packets are not reaching my guest VM's. ( https://support.newtek.com/hc/en-us/articles/218109477-NDI-Discovery-and-Registration )

I have tried both the Bridged Network Adapter and the NAT Network Adapter, and both have the same issue. I have tried multiple guest OS's (Linux, Unix and Windows), and none of them are able to see the multicast packets.

I installed Wireshark on my physical desktop and my physical laptop and I am able to see the multicast traffic. But when I run Wireshark on any of the guest VM's, I am unable to see any of the multicast traffic.

I have not looked at using an mDNS gateway as of yet.

I have not tried using my physical desktop as the NDI source yet either. But I will probably try to configure something for a quick test tomorrow to see if the guest VM's can see multicast messages sent from the guest.

Is there a way to enable multicast in VMware Workstation? Or is there a way to get this working?

Reply
0 Kudos
1 Reply
KHavey
Contributor
Contributor

I have ran through a handful more tests:

  1. I changed the NIC type to e1000e by editing the vmx of the VM (from e1000)
    1. Tested with both Bridge and NAT network connectivity
    2. Tested on both Windows 10 and Ubuntu 20.04 guest VM's
  2. I changed the NIC type to vmxnet3 by editing the vms of the VM
    1. Tested with both Bridge and NAT network connectivity
    2. Tested on both Windows 10 and Ubuntu 20.04 guest VM's
  3. I setup the physical desktop as the point of origin for the NDI stream
    1. I tested this stream and verified it worked to the physical laptop and to the physical streaming box.
  4. Ran through all tests again with the firewall disabled on all OS's (firewalld and Windows firewall)

I am still unable to see the multicast traffic on any of the guest VM's. The multicast still appears on all physical boxes, just not on any of the virtual machines.

I'll try to do some research in building an mDNS gateway and see if that is something that will work.

Reply
0 Kudos