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Bridging VMware to VLAN interface

What I basically want is to isolate specific virtual machines and let them communicate over their own VLAN in my network. So I setup VLan interfaces in my Linux box and tell VMware-Server to bridge to that interface.... and this gives an error.

I found the (tested and working !!) solution to the problems with bridging to vlan interfaces here:  http://communities.vmware.com/message/793968#793968

I tested this all using VMware-server 1.0.5 on my CentOS 5.1 x86_64 system

unpack /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmnet.tar to a working directory
in vmnet-only edit bridge.c

on line 838 change line:
   if (bridge->dev->hard_header_len != ETH_HLEN) {
to:
   if (bridge->dev->hard_header_len != ETH_HLEN && bridge->dev->hard_header_len != ETH_HLEN +4) {

save, pack vmnet-only to vmnet.tar and put back in /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source

re-run vmware-config.pl to rebuild the kernel modules.

Although this dates mid november 2007 and a SR was created SR#197929035. Somehow this never made it into VMware Server 1.0.7 (2008-08-28) or even VMware Server 2.0 BETA 2 (2008-03-28)

The next thing you do in vmware-config.pl is defining for each VLAN you have a local vmnet. Now I recommend to not use the default vmnets (simply undefine them) and define your own instead.

This is what the vmware-config.pl for VMware-server 1.0.5 looks like when you select editor mode

Would you prefer to modify your existing networking configuration using the
wizard or the editor? (wizard/editor/help) [wizard] editor
The following virtual networks have been defined:

. No virtual networks configured.

Do you wish to make additional changes to the current virtual networks 
settings? (yes/no) [yes]

Which virtual network do you wish to configure? (0-99) 42

What type of virtual network do you wish to set vmnet42?
(bridged,hostonly,nat,none) [none] bridged

Configuring a bridged network for vmnet42.

Your computer has multiple ethernet network interfaces available: eth0, eth0.1,
eth0.1:1, eth0.1:2, eth0.42, eth0.42:1, eth0.42:2, eth0.666, eth0.666:1. Which
one do you want to bridge to vmnet42? [eth0] eth0.42

The following virtual networks have been defined:

. vmnet42 is bridged to eth0.42

VMwareNetworkConfigVLAN.pngNote that in the above example the mentioned vmnet42 will NOT be visible as an entry in the dropdown box of the GUI. You'll have to type in the actual value manually.

Disable IPV6

VMware 2.0 BETA 2 complained about IPv6 being enabled.

Because I do not (yet) plan to start using it I chose to disable it completely.

This is done in 2 steps:

The file  /etc/modprobe.conf gets this extra line:

# Disable IPV6 (VMware Server and added security)
alias net-pf-10 off

All files called /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-* get this extra line:

IPV6INIT=no
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