Connecting Two VMware Workstation Hosts

[davidmcgill]

I started out using VMware Workstation 7.x on one host and everything was working great - created a virtual Windows 2008 DC, Exchange 2007 server, and various other servers. However, this test environment maxed out the RAM of my single VMware Workstation. Now I need to split the VM's between two VMware Workstations. I built two Windows 7 hosts, loaded VMware Workstation on both, and can't figure out how to connect vmwarelab1 host's VM's (192.168.142.x) to vmwarelab2 host's VM's. I know I need to somehow route between the two host PC's networks, but I am not sure how to accomplish this. I've seen some "linux floppy based routers" out there, but I don't know how to use those.

 

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[SpuffMonkey]

Wouldn't it be easier to stuff a PC full of RAM and install ESXi on it, copy the vm's over - and run them all from that?

[Duke]

I'm not sure I've 100% understood your problem and it's been a while since I've used the 'hosted' VMware stuff rather than bare-metal ESX/ESXi, but I'll throw this in:

 

Make sure both hosts are running on the same IP range and subnet. Connect both PCs together via a cheap switch and make sure they can talk to each other (ping, view file shares) at the Windows level first. In VMware Workstation, make sure the virtual NICs are correctly configured to use the right physical NICs on the hosts. Make sure your virtual machines are configured to use the right virtual NIC, and assign the VMs IP addresses on the same IP range and subnet as both hosts. In theory, that's it, the VMs should now be able to ping/connect to each other.

 

Chris

[Butuz]

Sorry cant help as have never used VMWare Workstation

 

Wouldn't it be easier to stuff a PC full of RAM and install ESXi on it, copy the vm's over - and run them all from that?

 

Agree with that. Why use VMWare workstation to test things when you won't (I hope) be using it in production?? Grab a bog standard PC, chuck 8/16GB RAM in it put in the bootable ESXi CD and go for it!!

 

Butuz

[Martin]

Assuming that the various "virtual servers" have fixed IP addresses that are unique and valid on your network, you should be able to change their network adapters (under VM Workstation in the Virtual Machine Settings for each server) to be "Bridged" rather than "Host-only". That way they will appear on your "live" network just like any other (physical) machine.

 

At least that is how i think that it is supposed to work

 

mb

[Butuz]

Be careful as if you introduce your test network onto your live network you may run into problems by having multiple networks/domain controllers/dhcp servers etc running on the same network.

 

You'd be better off using a 4 port switch and connecting them that way I would guess?

 

Butuz

[davidmcgill]

Yes, thank you all for your assistance - I tried the bridged yesterday, and it picked up the DHCP address from the host servers' network - and that solution seems to be the best one at this point.

 

For the other posts about adding more RAM and using ESX - I would do that, but this is for my office, testing out a solution, and you would think that as "tight" as they are, you'd get diamonds from coal and we'd be able to spend some money... In the short term, I am using crappy workstations with 4gb each. Working on getting ones with 8 or 16gb, but you know how hard it is to order stuff in an office... Maybe I can do ESX down the road. Again, thanks for all your suggestions.

 

Dave