Manually forcing VMware Fusion to use specific network interfaces or connections

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

• The Mac hosting VMware Fusion has more than one network card, adapter, or interface.
• Forcing VMware Fusion to use a manually configured network interface.
• Forcing VMware Fusion to use a wired Ethernet interface instead of a wireless interface.

Environment

VMware Fusion 13.x / Pro 13.x

VMware Fusion 12.x / Pro 12.x

VMware Fusion 11.x / Pro 11.x

VMware Fusion 10.x / Pro 10.x

VMware Fusion 8.x / Pro 8.x

VMware Fusion 7.x
VMware Fusion 6.x

VMware Fusion 5.x

VMware Fusion 4.x
VMware Fusion 3.x
VMware Fusion 2.x

VMware Fusion 1.x

Resolution

Fusion 5.x and above

You can select the available network adapter directly if you are using Bridged mode.

 

To select the adapter:

1. Launch VMware Fusion.
2. Go to Virtual Machine > Settings.
3. Click Network Adapter.
   
   
   In the left side, you should see a list of all available network adapters under Bridged Networking and the active adapters appear in green.
    
4. Select the adapter that you want to use.
5. Restart the virtual machine, if needed.

Note: You cannot specify the network adapter to use, if you are using NAT mode. Fusion uses your primary network adapter (the first one in the list in the Network pane of System Preferences). For more information on NAT mode versus Bridged mode, see Understanding networking types in VMware Fusion (1022264).

Fusion 4.x and 3.x

You can select the network adapter directly, if you are using Bridged mode.

 

To select the adapter:

1. Open Fusion.
2. Go to Virtual Machine > Settings
3. Click NetworkAdapter (Fusion 4) / Network (Fusion 3).
4. From the drop-down menu, select the network adapter (Ethernet, Wi-Fi (Lion) / Airport (Snow Leopard), etc.) you wish to use.
5. If the virtual machine is running, restart it in order to begin using the new device.

Fusion 2.x and 1.x

You cannot specify an Ethernet network interface directly from the Fusion application. However, you can manually edit the configuration script.

To manually configure virtual network to host Ethernet interface mappings:

1. Shutdown the virtual machines and quit the VMware Fusion application.
2. From the desktop open Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities.
3. Start the Terminal application.
4. Stop the Fusion services by entering this command:
   
   sudo /Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/boot.sh --stop
   
   .
5. Edit the configuration script by entering this command:
   
   sudo vi /Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/boot.sh
    
6. Search in the script file for these lines:
   
   # Bridge to host network interface 'en0'.
#"$LIBDIR/vmnet-bridge" -d /var/run/vmnet-bridge-vmnet0.pid vmnet0 en0
   # Bridge to the primary host network interface (which can change over time).
   "$LIBDIR/vmnet-bridge" -d /var/run/vmnet-bridge-vmnet0.pid vmnet0 ''
    
7. Modify the second and fourth lines by moving the # character. Those lines should resemble this sample::
   
   # Bridge to host network interface 'en0'.
"$LIBDIR/vmnet-bridge" -d /var/run/vmnet-bridge-vmnet0.pid vmnet0 en0
   # Bridge to the primary host network interface (which can change over time).
   #"$LIBDIR/vmnet-bridge" -d /var/run/vmnet-bridge-vmnet0.pid vmnet0 ''
    
8. Add this entry to the boot.sh file, below the fourth line:
   
   "$LIBDIR/vmnet-bridge" -d /var/run/vmnet-bridge-vmnet2.pid vmnet2 en1
   
   Note: You may add additional lines to correspond to any additional network interfaces.
   
   The lines in boot.sh now appear similar to this:
   
   # Bridge to host network interface 'en0'.
"$LIBDIR/vmnet-bridge" -d /var/run/vmnet-bridge-vmnet0.pid vmnet0 en0
   # Bridge to the primary host network interface (which can change over time).
   #"$LIBDIR/vmnet-bridge" -d /var/run/vmnet-bridge-vmnet0.pid vmnet0 ''
   "$LIBDIR/vmnet-bridge" -d /var/run/vmnet-bridge-vmnet2.pid vmnet2 en1
    
9. Save the boot.sh file.
10. Restart the Mac.
11. If you already have two virtual network cards configured to your virtual machine, proceed to step 13. Otherwise, add a new virtual network card bridged to your virtual machine, then follow these steps:
     
    1. Power off the virtual machine.
    2. From Mac OS Finder locate .vmx file, open the .vmx file in a text editor.
       
       Note: Virtual machine files are stored in a package (with the extension .vmwarevm). Control-click or right-click the package in Mac Finder and select Show Package Contents to find the configuration file.
        
    3. Add this line as the last line in .vmx file:
       
       ethernet1.connectionType = "custom"
ethernet1.vnet = "vmnet2"
        
    4. Save and close .vmx file.
        
12. Start VMware Fusion.
13. Edit the settings for the virtual machine you want to modify.
14. Configure the network in virtual machine as per your network environment. Using these settings, Virtual Network 1 maps to en0 (Ethernet 1 of Mac) and Virtual Network 2 maps to en1 (Ethernet 2 of Mac), etc.