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VMWare Workstation (I'm using V8 on Linux) provides a GUI tool, Virtual Network Editor (vmware-netcfg) to edit the virtual network adapter settings for use by the VMs on the system. I'm dealing with mass changes and semi-automated deployment of preconfigured VMs on a number of machines with VMWare Workstation and would like to find a way to script or otherwise automate modifications to the vmnet* adapters. It's not practical to use the GUI when changing the configuration on 30+ machines at a time.

Does anyone know if VMWare provides a command-line utility for this, or may be the location of the file where the configuration is stored so that I could script changes to that file?

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3 Answers 3

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I was able to find the answer for myself. The virtual network configuration, at least on Linux, is stored under /etc/vmware. The file /etc/vmware/networking contains basic virtual network configuration, e.g.

# cat /etc/vmware/networking
VERSION=1,0
answer VNET_1_DHCP no
answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_SUBNET 192.168.1.0
answer VNET_1_VIRTUAL_ADAPTER yes
answer VNET_8_DHCP yes
answer VNET_8_DHCP_CFG_HASH EEBDA048FBC09F9BC2227D19AABD86B443D88BA0
answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_SUBNET 172.16.54.0
answer VNET_8_NAT yes
answer VNET_8_VIRTUAL_ADAPTER yes

None of this is documented, as usual, but with sed, some googling, and a little bit of luck I should be able to modify it according to my requirements.

Note that after editing /etc/vmware/networking one needs to vmware-networks --stop, then vmware-networks --start to update the running configuration.

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great job, thanks mustaccio. To raise the dead ...

VMware Player 5 outline:

  • VNET_# = 0 to 9 (VMnet# i.e. for VMnet1: VNET_1)
  • HASH is a 40 digit hex number

File -- Start

File Header:

VERSION=1,0

bridge mode -- other than standard (see addition below)

answer VNET_#_DHCP no
answer VNET_#_VIRTUAL_ADAPTER no

Host-only with DHCP

answer VNET_#_DHCP yes
answer VNET_#_DHCP_CFG_HASH [enter_hash]
answer VNET_#_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
answer VNET_#_HOSTONLY_SUBNET 192.168.0.0
answer VNET_#_VIRTUAL_ADAPTER yes

Host-only without DHCP

answer VNET_#_DHCP yes
answer VNET_#_DHCP_CFG_HASH [enter_hash]
answer VNET_#_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.248
answer VNET_#_HOSTONLY_SUBNET 173.239.151.176
answer VNET_#_NAT no
answer VNET_#_VIRTUAL_ADAPTER yes

NAT

answer VNET_#_DHCP yes
answer VNET_#_DHCP_CFG_HASH [enter_hash]
answer VNET_#_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
answer VNET_#_HOSTONLY_SUBNET 192.168.1.0
answer VNET_#_NAT yes
answer VNET_#_VIRTUAL_ADAPTER yes

Non-standard bridge mode (i.e. not Auto) Number at the end is VMnet#

answer VNL_DEFAULT_BRIDGE_VNET -1
add_bridge_mapping eth0 0
add_bridge_mapping eth1 1

File --- End

I found that when I run service vmware start some processes failed. Also, associated & required files were not added or updated, as I had hoped.

FIX: Uninstall VMware Player and then reinstall. Vmware player will use your /etc/vmware/networking file to create a new network setup

To unistall: vmware-installer -u vmware-player *version.build* (version.build = Product Version i.e. 5.0.4.1945795; see vmware-installer -l or the bundle file name for your info)

Note: Standard auto bridge mode does not have an entry, VMnet0, when in bridge (either auto or assigned), is presumed and not included in the file declaration

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This should be doable using vmware-config.pl: http://www.vmware.com/support/ws5/doc/ws_install_vmware-config.html.

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  • Thanks, it was close, but no cigar. vmware-config.pl was removed in Workstation 7 and onwards. There is a replacement of sorts, vmware-modconfig, but it only deals with kernel modules. However, your suggestion prompted more searching on my side, which produced some results.
    – mustaccio
    Aug 30, 2013 at 17:58

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