VMware Fusion hosts my test beds for PowerNSX. This runs on my work laptop which is a 2015 MacBook Pro that has an i7, 16GB, and a 1TB SSD. I access the environment via SSH from my desktop iMac. These workloads run on my laptop so when I travel my test beds are not dependent on home infrastructure.
I run the following workloads on the MacBook Pro:
– vCenter Server Appliance
– NSX Manager
– ESXi
– Log Insight
These VMs are connected to Custom Networks. The network in question is 192.168.103.0/24 and the checkbox Allow virtual machines on this network to connect to external networks (using NAT) is ticked. This results in the workloads being on a local network
I wanted to be able to access the Log Insight interface hosted on my laptop and as such I needed to port-forward to the Log Insight virtual machine. This requires editing on the Fusion network scope the workloads are attached to.
The network configuration files are stored their respective folders within the VMware Fusion preferences folder.
➜ ~ l /Library/Preferences/VMware\ Fusion/ total 48 drwxr-xr-x 16 root wheel 544B Jun 12 20:55 . drwxr-xr-x 52 root wheel 1.7K Jun 14 15:58 .. -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1.2K May 23 10:33 .networking.XXXXXX -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 25B May 18 15:01 config -r--r--r-- 1 root wheel 31B Jun 12 20:55 lastLocationUsed -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 553B Apr 2 16:43 license-fusion-80-e4-201505 -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1.5K Jun 12 20:55 networking -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1.5K Jun 11 23:20 networking.bak.0 -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 0B Apr 7 08:26 promiscAuthorized [email protected] 10 root wheel 340B Jun 12 20:55 thnuclnt drwxr-xr-x 4 root wheel 136B May 3 21:53 vmnet1 drwxr-xr-x 7 root wheel 238B May 3 21:53 vmnet2 drwxr-xr-x 4 root wheel 136B May 3 21:53 vmnet3 drwxr-xr-x 7 root wheel 238B Jun 9 20:36 vmnet5 drwxr-xr-x 4 root wheel 136B May 28 20:11 vmnet6 drwxr-xr-x 7 root wheel 238B May 3 21:53 vmnet8
The network of interest in this case is vmnet5. Change into the vmnet5 directory.
There is a lot of interesting content within the nat.conf file. It includes which IP address will be used as the source IP for NAT, what inbound TCP connections can be made, and much more. The [incomingtcp] field is what is of interest.
➜ ~ cat /Library/Preferences/VMware\ Fusion/vmnet5/nat.conf # VMware NAT configuration file [host] # NAT gateway address ip = 192.168.104.2 netmask = 255.255.255.0 # VMnet device if not specified on command line device = vmnet5 # Allow PORT/EPRT FTP commands (they need incoming TCP stream ...) activeFTP = 1 # Allows the source to have any OUI. Turn this on if you change the OUI # in the MAC address of your virtual machines. allowAnyOUI = 1 # Controls if (TCP) connections should be reset when the adapter they are # bound to goes down resetConnectionOnLinkDown = 1 # Controls if (TCP) connection should be reset when guest packet's destination # is NAT's IP address resetConnectionOnDestLocalHost = 1 # Controls if enable nat ipv6 natIp6Enable = 0 # Controls if enable nat ipv6 natIp6Prefix = fd15:4ba5:5a2b:1005::/64 [tcp] # Value of timeout in TCP TIME_WAIT state, in seconds timeWaitTimeout = 30 [udp] # Timeout in seconds. Dynamically-created UDP mappings will purged if # idle for this duration of time 0 = no timeout, default = 60; real # value might be up to 100% longer timeout = 30 [netbios] # Timeout for NBNS queries. nbnsTimeout = 2 # Number of retries for each NBNS query. nbnsRetries = 3 # Timeout for NBDS queries. nbdsTimeout = 3 [incomingtcp] # Use these with care - anyone can enter into your VM through these... # The format and example are as follows: # = <VM's IP address>:<VM's port number> #8080 = 172.16.3.128:80 [incomingudp] # UDP port forwarding example #6000 = 172.16.3.0:6001
Adding 9443 = 192.168.104.131:443 within the [incomingtcp] section allows inbound access on TCP 9443 to the laptop to be forward to 192.168.104.131:443 which is the Log Insight instance. With this configured one must restart network services.
sudo /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmnet-cli --stop sudo /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmnet-cli --start
Now from another device, such as my iMac, I can access the Log Insight at https://dreamspike.local:9443.
VMware Fusion is a handy tool for home lab environments and especially environments on the run. Being a VMware employee I am privy to what is coming and I pretty much love this tool more and more with each release.
Wondering how I run VM’s with more memory than my actual device has? Check out these other Fusion blogs below!
Check this blog entry on how to run VCSA in Fusion
Check this blog entry on how to use memory swapping in Fusion.