Linux – Add network interface to a running vmware server

linuxnetworkingvmware-server

I'm running a VMware Server 2.x with a number of guests. I now need to bridge in another network interface so that it will be available for a new guest machine.

The interface is visible and working on the host:

root@vmhost:/# ifconfig vlan72
vlan72    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 12:34:56:78:9A:BC
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1496  Metric:1

This is a trivial task using the configuration script vmware-config.pl. However that would require a full shutdown of the VMware Server software. So the big question is, can this be done without having to disrupt all the guests?

I've noticed that there is a "refresh network list" button in the web interface, which kinda implies that some changes to the network configurations must be possible while VMware Server is running.

Best Answer

I was looking for a solution to add vnics to VM server 2.x without having to stop the VMs or reconfigure it. Running vmware-config.pl would cause me particular issues as I am running VM server on an unsupported version of Ubuntu (karmic desktop). I have used (repeatedly) the solution shown in the link below and can vouch for its validity...

http://blog.hurricanelabs.com/2009/01/adding-vmware-bridge-interfaces-while.html

This issue isn't relevant to windows mcahines as you can add vnics using the executable provided in the install.. Any linux box running VMware Server 1 or 2 will be able to carry this out.

Cheers and good luck

Related Topic