You can use a custom network and use locally provided (VMware Workstation) DHCP services on that virtual network. There are more than enough VMnets to create whatever kind of virtual networks you need on your host (given that it's unlikely that you will have anywhere close to 10 VMs running on a Workstation host and that you would likely have multiple VMs on a VMnet to create private networks or other scenarios) Any VM can be connected to any VMnet that you want, per the connectionĥ. Any of the VMnets can be reconfigured to be a different type of networkĤ. Your limits for bridged and NAT'ed networks is one. You are limited to just one bridged network and one NAT network.įigure 2. There are ten VMnets, numbered 0-9 with VMnet0 being bridged, VMnet1 being host-only, and VMnet8 being NAT, by default. Virtual Machine Network type is set under the Hardware tab.

If you connect the host network adaptor to a custom network, it becomes a host-only network.įigure 1. Custom - A private VM network that one or more VMs can be connected to you can offer DHCP on this network (see Fig.Host-only - The VM can only talk to the host.NAT virtual network - Tthe VM is connected via network address translation (NAT) to the host network adaptor.Bridged virtual network - The VM shares the MAC address of the host but will have a different IP address (just as if the VM and the host were on a hub together).There are four types of Virtual Machine Networks (VMnet): Using the Virtual Network Editor is easy, once you understand the concepts. However, you can create much more complex network configurations in Workstation by using the Virtual Network Editor. Most people using Workstation simply take the default network configuration and connect their VM to the host computer via NAT or bridged mode. Did you know that VMware Workstation also offers the ability to create some advanced virtual networks?

VMware vSphere offers advanced virtual network configuration (especially if you use the distributed virtual switch or Cisco Nexus 1000-V). Using server virtualization requires that you understand the concepts of virtual networks. Have you tried it? Plus: Upcoming VMware Webinar July 12!

You can create some advanced virtual networks with this nifty tool. How To Guy Understanding the Virtual Network Editor in VMware Workstation

Vmware bridged network mac address