How do YOU setup your VM peripheral ports?

JZerb

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Oct 2016
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so im new to the whole VM world, and i just curious as to how everyone sets up their VMs to handle the peripheral ports on their host machines. Particularly the ethernet ports. Bridged connection? NAT? Custom? With VMware i went into the virtual network editor and setup a new virtual network that had a bridged connection to my laptops ethernet card. then in the virtual machine settings under the network adapter option i chose Custom and pointed it to the aforementioned specific virtual network that i created. everything worked out in the end but when connecting to a PLC or Panelview Plus today i had to manually go in and add them, whether it was RSLinx or in FTVS and FactorytalkLinx. Is there a better way to setup the connection from the host to the guest VM so that it behaves in a way more like it would without the VW being installed?
 
My VMs have two Network Adapters.

The first is set up for ordinary DHCP on the Guest side, and configured using the ordinary VM Removable Devices -> Network Adapter settings as a NAT connection. That allows it access to both resources on my LAN (like my FactoryTalk Activation server) and to the Internet.

The second is set up as a Bridged connection, with a Static IP address that's part of my automation network.

The second adapter is a little trickier, because I use the VMWare Workstation Virtual Network Editor to manually set the bridged network to a specific physical network adapter on my Host computer. I use a USB3/GigE adapter that I can connect directly to my automation networks.

The limitation of VMWare Player is that it only allows bridged network adapters on the Guest to be connected to an automatically-selected network adapter on the Host. That works fine if you only have one, but I'm frequently connected to WiFi, VPN, built-in Ethernet, or Ethernet through a docking station.

A suggestion about why the broadcast didn't work; sometimes VPN software interferes, and sometimes you need to set up your firewall to let through the response packets. I have RSLinx Classic Lite on my Host PC, which runs a Rockwell configuration tool on the Windows Firewall on installation, and generally gets it set up correctly to handle broadcasts and browsing
 
Buy usb-etherner adapter and install it directly to VM, that way your host PC isn't part of connection.
Same works also for serial
 
I've actually had bad experiences connecting a USB/Ethernet adapter directly to the Virtual Machine in VMWare. The USB pass-through technology was less stable and very slow compared to TCP/IP networking.

It's possible that VMWare's USB connectivity has improved in the past few versions.

The only thing that's worse is their Serial pass-through... so I do connect USB/Serial devices straight to the Guest OS !
 
I actually installed my usb-->serial adapter in my VM this afternoon and made sure that it worked on a ML1400, all went well.

Ken i actually have my VM setup just as you mentioned how you have your second adapter setup. Used the Virtual Network Editor, created a network that has a bridged connection to the ethernet card on my laptop, then under the VM Settings on the Network Adapter option I chose Other and pointed it to that VMNet that i created. Seems to work pretty well IF i manually enter the IP of the device that im trying to connect to. RSLinx Classic nor FactoryTalkLinx wanted to find any devices out on the network without any help.
 
Seems to work pretty well IF i manually enter the IP of the device that im trying to connect to. RSLinx Classic nor FactoryTalkLinx wanted to find any devices out on the network without any help.

You may want to look at what adapter RSLinx is using when you're using the Ethernet/IP driver. It is probably set to "Windows Default" which may be causing it to get confused. Try setting it to the specific Ethernet adapter you are wanting it to use.


My advice for when setting up your network adapters is to go slow and only add one adapter at a time. Rename it in the guest to match what it is pointing to. It can be a pain to get them all straightened out later.
 
I have a Mac Book Pro and old Mac Pro with VM Fusion ( VMWare for Macs ). My setup is similar to Ken's. Etherent port 1 is set to DHCP and is used to to what ever network I am on. The is usually 192.168.xxx.xxx. The second Ethernet port is configured to talk directly to one of our motion controllers with fixed IP address. 10.0.1.2 is my Mac Pro. I think 10.0.1.2 is my Mac Book Pro and 10.0.1.4 and above is a motion controller. When in the field or at trade shows I usually don't bring a switch or hub for the motion controller. If I did it would be 10.0.1.1

Mac Book Pro Ethernet 1 is wireless. I use a VPN called viscosity with the VPN server on our computers.

BTW, the Ethernet is cool. We have a new regional sales manager in the UK now. He has a Ethernet phone and VPN so it is just like he is here when it comes to communications.
 
I've actually had bad experiences connecting a USB/Ethernet adapter directly to the Virtual Machine in VMWare. The USB pass-through technology was less stable and very slow compared to TCP/IP networking.

It's possible that VMWare's USB connectivity has improved in the past few versions.

The only thing that's worse is their Serial pass-through... so I do connect USB/Serial devices straight to the Guest OS !

make some sense. I have old ethernet adapter which works 100% and newer adapter loss connection all time on VM.
So it have to be chipset driver problem between VM and adapter like on serial adapters on PLC communication.
 
You may want to look at what adapter RSLinx is using when you're using the Ethernet/IP driver. It is probably set to "Windows Default" which may be causing it to get confused. Try setting it to the specific Ethernet adapter you are wanting it to use.


My advice for when setting up your network adapters is to go slow and only add one adapter at a time. Rename it in the guest to match what it is pointing to. It can be a pain to get them all straightened out later.

so i just opened up RSLinx and i couldnt seem to figure out how to determine exactly what adapter that RSLinx is using with the Ethernet driver. Could you point me in the right direction?
 
Hi all I was just having an issues with Connecting to Ethernet in my VMware with WIFI on on my Host Win 10 machine. If I shut of the wifi on my HOST machine Ethernet would work but I would have no wifi. I applied this fix and it works great. I hope it will help others.

1. Open Network and Sharing Centre.
2. Go to Change Adapter Settings
3. Go to Properties of Local Area Network
4. Click on Internet Protocol version 4 and go to it's properties
5. Click on Advance
6. You will see a block checked there by the name of "Automatic Metric"
7. Uncheck box and enter 2 in that section
8. Now do the same for with Wireless network but enter 1.

( This is in your HOST machine)

Steve
 
NAT (only used to get internet into the VM for updates, etc.)
Custom Bridge 0 (physical network port - used 99% of the time)
Custom Bridge 1 (WiFi - when commissioning and using portable hotspot on the control network)
 

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