Bridge Networking causing issues for Host computer on network

[mh1978]

I have used Fusion to run a couple of VMs in bridged network mode for some time. I have always been able to access the host Mac from other devices and use it as a jump box with team viewer. Recently this has stopped working on several devices that I use in this way. As soon as I shut down the VMs, the host is once again able to connect to other devices (firewall for example) on the network. What am I missing here? It seems pretty straight forward. My laptop still has the host IP and MAC in its ARP table so it knows it is there but it just won't respond.

All of the VMs are operating on VLAN 10 and it is that VLAN that I need to use to talk to the host. The host sits on a trunk port and other VLANs operate normally, just its VLAN 10 interface is "hogged" by the VMs.

[nancyz]

Hi mh1978

Did you change other settings for the VM or host before your setup stop working?

[mh1978]

Hi. Thanks for your response. I have not changed anything in the set up for this to not be working. It does work as expected on two other setups that are exactly the same albeit on different versions of OSX. I have since tried re-installing VMware fusion but that has not made any difference.

[ColoradoMarmot]

If you're on enterprise grade kit, it may be that the network admins have limited the number of connections per physical MAC address.

[mh1978]

Hi. It is my own hardware and there are no port security restrictions. The same setup works on other devices. I have manually removed and reinstalled. I have also upgraded to 10.1.6 and then again to 11.5.3 but there is still no difference. OS is Catalina 10.15.2. I have no idea what is causing it but it does seem to be a bug. As soon as any VM is launched, the host computer can only talk to the VMs and not the rest of the network. I run the VMs on a VLAN interface so other VLANs and the untagged port are not affected. This works perfectly on two other identical systems ableit with different (older) versions of OSX.