VMware GSX Server 2.5.2

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You can view and change the settings for bridged networking on your host. These changes affect all virtual machines using bridged networking on the host.

You can decide which NICs on your host to use for bridged networking. You can map specific NICs to specific virtual networks (VMnets).

1. Open a local console.

2. Choose Settings > Manage Virtual Networks.

   The VMware Virtual Network Configuration dialog box appears, with the Summary tab active.

3. By default, the VMnet0 virtual switch is set up in bridged mode and bridges to one of the active Ethernet adapters on the host computer.

   

   The choice of which adapter it uses is arbitrary. You can restrict the range of choices using options on the Automatic Bridging tab.

   (Also shown are VMnet1, the default virtual switch for host-only networking, and VMnet8, the default virtual switch for NAT, if they are enabled in GSX Server.)

4. To exclude one or more physical Ethernet adapters from the list to which VMnet0 may be bridged, click the Automatic Bridging tab. To exclude an Ethernet adapter, click Add to add it to the list of excluded devices.

   

   In the Choose Network Adapters dialog box, select the listing for the adapter you want to exclude, then click OK.

   

   To remove an adapter from the list of excluded adapters, select its name in the list, then click Remove.

   

5. To designate a physical Ethernet adapter to be used for bridged networking on virtual switches named VMnet2 through VMnet7, click the Bridge Mapping tab. Choose an adapter from the drop-down list beside the name of the virtual switch you want to use.

   

   Caution: Be careful when you change the bridged adapter mappings. If you re-assign a physical Ethernet adapter to a different virtual switch, any virtual machine using the original switch loses its network connectivity via that switch. You must then change the setting for each affected virtual machine's network adapter individually. This can be especially troublesome if your host has only one physical Ethernet adapter and you reassign it to a VMnet other than VMnet0; even though the VMnet still appears to be bridged to an automatically chosen adapter, the only adapter it can use has been assigned to another VMnet.

6. When you have made all the changes you want to make on all panels of the VMware Virtual Network Configuration dialog box, click OK.