Three modes of VMware network connectivity (bridged, NAT, host-only)

Briefly

VMware offers three network connection modes: Bridged (bridge mode), NAT (network address translation mode), Host-only (host mode only). To properly apply them in network management and maintenance, you should look at these three patterns first.

• Briefly
• Bridged bridging mode
• NAT Network Address Translation mode
• Host-only only Host Mode

Bridged (bridging mode)

In bridged mode, VMware's virtual operating system is like a standalone host on a local area network (hosts and virtual machines are in the same position), which can access any machine in the network. In bridged mode, we often need to configure the virtual host IP address, subnet mask, etc. (Note: The IP address of the virtual host and the host IP address on the same network segment). This allows the virtual system to communicate with the host machine. At the same time, because this virtual system is a separate host system in the LAN, it is possible to manually configure its TCP/IP configuration information to enable access to the Internet through a LAN gateway or router.

The relationship between a virtual system and a host using bridged mode is like two computers connected to a hub (hub), and for them to communicate, you need to configure the IP address and subnet mask for the virtual system.

If you want to use VMware to establish a virtual server within the LAN, to provide services for LAN users, you should choose bridged mode.

NAT (network address translation mode)

Using NAT mode, the virtual system uses the NAT (network address translation) function to access the public network through the network where the host machine resides. In other words, the use of NAT mode enables access to the Internet in virtual systems. The TCP/IP configuration information for a virtual system in NAT mode is provided by the DHCP server of the VMNET8 (NAT) virtual network and cannot be modified manually, so the virtual system cannot communicate with other real hosts on the local area network. The biggest advantage of using NAT mode is that virtual system access to the Internet is very simple, you do not need to do any other configuration, only the host machine can access the Internet.

Nat mode is recommended if you want to use VMware to install a new virtual system and have direct access to the Internet without any manual configuration in the virtual system.

Host-only (host mode only)

In host-only mode, the real environment and the virtual environment are isolated, all virtual systems can communicate with each other, but the virtual system and the real network is isolated. (Virtual systems and host machine systems can communicate with each other, which is equivalent to the two machines being interconnected by twisted-pair wires.) ）

In host-only mode, the TCP/IP configuration information of the virtual system (for example: IP address, gateway address, DNS server, etc.) is dynamically allocated by the DHCP server of the VMNET1 (host-only) virtual network.

If you want to use VMware to create a virtual system that is isolated from other machines in the network and perform some special network debugging work, you can choose Host-only mode.

Note: the VMnet0 virtual network in the bridged mode mentioned above, the VMNET8 virtual network in NAT mode, and the VMNET1 virtual network in host-only mode are all generated by the automatic configuration of VMware virtual machines. Users are not required to set their own. VMnet8 and VMNET1 provide DHCP services, and VMNET0 virtual networks are not available.

Three modes of VMware network connectivity (bridged, NAT, host-only)