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Advanced network settings

VMX-file parameters

 

Basic setup

MAC address handling

ESX - specific

VMware-tools related
Wake on LAN

Advanced setup - experts only
Advanced MAC address handling - experts only


other parameters related to network

 

Basic setup - see basic table for reasonable blocks

ethernet0.present = "false"

Main-switch: set to "true" to enable the device.
This parameter works like a mainswitch - if it is set to "true" all other parameters related to the same device are parsed. If it is set to "false" the other parameters are ignored.

ethernet0.startConnected = "true"

Silently defaults to "true"
set ito "false" f you don't want the nic to be connected at boot

ethernet0.virtualDev = "vlance"
ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet"
ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"

On current VMware-versions you can use any of these 3
e1000 performs best but your OS may not come with the drivers
vmxnet needs drivers that come with the VMware-tools
vlance should work on all older OS without additional drivers

ethernet0.connectionType = "bridged"

ethernet0.connectionType = "hostonly"
ethernet0.connectionType = "nat"

ethernet0.connectionType = "custom"


ethernet0.connectionType = "monitor_dev"

Sets the connection type.
Silently defaults to "bridged"

also see additional notes

ethernet0.vnet = "vmnet0"
...
ethernet0.vnet = "vmnet9"

Sets the number of the used vmnet.
Only use with connection type "custom"
also see additional notes


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MAC-address handling

ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:40:7e:22"
ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"

This lines are added automatically on first start of a VM.
If you need a different MAC delete this lines and use those from the next block


ethernet0.addressType = "static"
ethernet0.address = "00:50:56:3e:86:29"

This settings have to be used to configure a
MAC-address manually.

Valid range:
00:50:56:00:00:00
00:50:56:3f:ff:ff


ethernet0.addressType = "static"
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
ethernet0.addressType = "vpx"

 

 

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advanced MAC-address handling

ethernet0.ignoreMACAddressConflict = "false"

I think this is another silent default - usually a Nic will not come up if the same Mac exists on the network.

ethernet0.noPromisc = "true"

This disables - well have a guess - yes , this disables promiscous-mode.
On Linux hosts you must be root to set nics into promiscous mode - read more

ethernet0.noForgedSrcAddr = "true"

This disables spoofing of Mac-address

ethernet0.reassignMAConResume = "true"

I guess this is another silent default - usually VMware tries to assign the same MAC after resume as it was used before resume.

ethernet0.checkMACAddress = "FALSE"

 

ESX and WS 6.5 - allows to set a MAC outside the usual range (experimental)

ethernet0.downWhenAddrMismatch = "false"

see knowledgebase

 

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Tools related settings

ethernet0.allowGuestConnectionControl = "false"

Disallow control of connection from inside the guest.
(Only works with guests that have VMware tols installed)
Silent default is "true"

ethernet0.disableMorphToVmxnet = "false"

Vlance-nics magically morph to VMXnet nics after tools-install.
Don't use ...

 

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Wake on Lan

ethernet0.wakeOnPcktRcv = "false"

Workstation 6 and higher only

Set to "true" to enable WakeOnLan functions
Don't specify unless you really need it.

 

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ESX specific ?

ethernet0.devName
ethernet0.exclusive
ethernet0.pvnID
ethernet0.networkName

Ethernet0.connectionType = "monitor_dev"
Ethernet0.devName = "vmnic0"
Ethernet0.networkName = "sciquestprod"

ESX - specific ?

 

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Advanced setup

WARNING: don't use this unless you kow what you are doing

ethernet0.numRecvBuffers
ethernet0.numXmitBuffers

ethernet0.rxbw.limit
ethernet0.rxbw.queuesize
ethernet0.rxfi.droprate
ethernet0.rxfi.dropsize

ethernet0.txbw.limit
ethernet0.txbw.queuesize
ethernet0.txfi.droprate
ethernet0.txfi.dropsize

ethernet0.noReceiveAfterSend
ethernet0.yieldAfterSend

ethernet0.flashWriteable
ethernet0.forcedToBridged

Fine-tuning: don't ask me

ethernet0.features ="0"

Do you get poor UDP-performance with vmxnet-device ?

Try this - see forumpost

May speed up performance when running ghost ...


ethernet0.allow64bitVmxnet = "true"
ethernet0.allow64bitVlance = "true"

 

ON 64-bit hosts VMware likes to assign E1000 - but you can force it to use different adapters by useing this lines

along with the appropriate virtualDev-entries.

ethernet0.opromsize = ?

Boot ROM size - don't know details

ethernet0.features = "0x2"

Enable TCP Segmentation Offloading (TSO) for a Windows virtual machine on ESX 2.x

Reference: knowledgebase 1465

 

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related parameters


These parameters are somehow related but not dependant on the main-switch that

vlance.noOprom = "true"

vmxnet.noOprom = "true"

Recent VMware-versions allow Network-boot.
If you know that you don't need this, you can free some memory by using this

ethernet.e1000.available = "true"
ethernet.vlance.available = "true"
ethernet.morphNICs = "true"
ethernet.perfMonInterval = ?

Don't use

vnet.dontProbe = "false"

Sometimes Windows-guests have problems to probe the
virtual Nics at boot-time: try this


Don't use it if you don't need it - it affects performance

 

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There are two different ways to assign Virtual Nets:

The easy way uses one out of three options:
ethernet0.connectionType = "bridged"

ethernet0.connectionType = "hostonly"
ethernet0.connectionType = "nat"

The expert way uses a combination of 'connectionType' and "vnet"

ethernet0.connectionType = "custom"
and the exact number of the VNET you want - like
ethernet0.vnet = "vmnet0"

Lets have an example: you have two bridged networks on Player: vmnet0 and vmnet2
If you use
ethernet0.connectionType = "bridged"

ethernet1.connectionType = "bridged"
the second ethernet device will not come up.

If you use
ethernet0.connectionType = "custom"
ethernet0.vnet = "vmnet0"

ethernet1.connectionType = "custom"

ethernet1.vnet = "vmnet2"
instead - both devices will come up.

 

 

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