VMWare Virtual Network Editor

VM Network Diagram

The following diagram shows the architecture of the Virtual Network VMWare uses to manager network communications of Virtual Machines.VMnet0 is Bridged to the Hosts network adapter, as is VMnet1 and VMnet8.

  • Both products, VMware Server and VMware Player offer ten virtual net-works on Microsoft Windows (on Linux there are about 100), three of which have already been preconfigured during the installation:
  • Host-only,  Bridged and  NAT. Yet: via the GUI, VMnet0 can only be used for a bridged network; VMnet1 can only be used for Host-only; and VMnet8 only for a NAT network
  • The seven remaining networks are defined as Guest-only by default, which means that only the virtual machines are connected over the network. The host, by comparison, remains on the Host-only network, and has no con-nection to the Guest-only network.
  • If you install a further virtual network adapter on the host and allocate this to a Guest-only network, then this network will become a Host-only network, because then the host and all VMs can see each other. On Windows and on most Linux derivatives these Guest-only networks are directly available. However on systems with UDEV devices, such as newer SuSE and Ubuntu versions, device nodes for VMnet must be created
  • VM1  is an internal server system, which should be reachable from every member of the network. So, it only has an adapter to VMnet0.
  • VM2  should likewise be reachable in the network, but additionally have a connection to VM4 over the separate Guest-only network VMnet3.
  • VM3  needs connection to VM4 and to the host system, as these three systems exchange data with one an other. Therefore only a Host-only network connection (VMnet1) is required.
  • VM4  is a system with various different applications and must therefore have a dedicated connection to VM2 (VMnet3), a separate connection to the host and VM3 (VMnet1), as well as an Internet connection. As there is no reason for a connection from the physical network to VM4, a NAT network (VMnet8) is ideal for this purpose.
Connection to: Host System Guest System in the Network Outside World
VMnet6 No VMnet6 No
VMnet7 No VMnet7 No
VMnet8(NAT) Yes VMnet8 Outgoing yes, if there is an active NAT service. incoming traffic restricted vy the NAT service.
MVnet9 No VMnet9 No

 

Virtual Network Editor

Add Network Options

 

VMnet Information

NAT Settings

Host-Only

DHCP Settings

VMnet8 Bridged Mode