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I am trying to set up 3 VMWare Virtual Networks that are Host-Only. I have at least 2 (more planned) VMWare Workstation Virtual Machines which are RHEL10 that need to access and use these networks to communicate:

As shown in "Virtual Network Editor":

  • VMnet2: Host-Only, Connected, No DHCP, subnet IP: 192.168.230.0 Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
  • VMnet3: Host-Only, Connected, No DHCP, subnet IP: 192.168.231.0, Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
  • VMnet4: Host-Only, Connected, No DHCP, subnet IP: 192.168.232.0, Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

All of these virtual networks exist in Virtual Network Editor, and all exist in Control Panel -> Network and Internet -> Network Connections where they are all listed as "Enabled."

Moreover, I have verified that there is no subnet overlap between each of these any each other, or any other subnet on the machine, nor the LAN.

For this question, I have 2 RHEL10 VMs as guests in VMWare, we'll call them Guest1 and Guest2 and we will isolate the problem to specifically VMnet2.

Guest1 and Guest2 in the VM -> Settings have Network Adapter 2 set to Custom -> "VMnet2" and both have the "Connected" and "Connect at Startup" checkboxes checked when running.

In both VMs, when I run a ip a I can see that there is an interface named and "UP" for both of these VMnet2 NICs.

However, a ping from Guest1 to Guest2, and Guest2 to Guest1 both fail "Destination Host Unreachable". I have also tried disabling the firewalld firewall on both machines, but especially on the one receiving the ping, same result.

By way of example, this is a sample output from Guest1 from ip a:

2: ens192: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:0c:29:11:0d:bf brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    altname enp11s0
    inet 192.168.230.10/24 brd 192.168.230.255 scope global noprefixroute ens192
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::20c:29ff:fe11:dbf/64 scope link proto kernel_ll 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Then from Guest2:

3: ens161: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:0c:29:a2:a2:76 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    altname enp4s0
    altname enx000c29a2a276
    inet 192.168.230.11/24 brd 192.168.230.255 scope global noprefixroute ens161
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::20c:29ff:fea2:a276/64 scope link proto kernel_ll 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

However, on Guest1, I get this:

guest1@localhost ~ [1]> ping -c 1 192.168.230.11
PING 192.168.230.11 (192.168.230.11) 56(84) bytes of data.
From 192.168.230.10 icmp_seq=1 Destination Host Unreachable

--- 192.168.230.11 ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 0 received, +1 errors, 100% packet loss, time 0ms

I get the exact same from Guest1 to Guest2's IP, despite both of them seemingly connected to VMnet2, there to be no firewall interfering, and so on. I've already tried rebooting the host machine, recreating the virtual networks (after which I even deleted and re-added them manually as NICs to the VMs) and resetting the VMWare Network processes.

VMware Version: VMWare Workstation Pro 25H2 25.0.0.24995812 Host Windows Version: Windows 10 Pro, 22H2, Build 19045.6466

It seems even though the VMNets (we use VMNet2 here as an example to isolate the problem) are just not functional and switching, but it is unclear how to proceed.

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  • Does a tcpdump on one guest's interface show ARP queries coming in from the other host? "Destination Host Unreachable" is not usually a firewall issue but an ARP issue (well, a "nothing is going through vmware at all" issue it seems, but it happens before the actual ICMP packets can even get sent so iptables doesn't yet come into play). Commented Jan 29 at 6:43
  • @grawity so the tcpdump on either interface shows only outbound queries... So for example if I run tcpdump on Guest1 and then I ping Guest2, I do see those on tcpdump, I also tried arping. But I do not see anything from one coming into the other. Commented Jan 29 at 7:59

1 Answer 1

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Maybe a a pointless gesture, but could you do a "ip route" on both guests ? I got same config, with OL8.10 and W11 host ... but DHCP. What puzzle me in your description, is the difference of the interface name between the 2 guests. Maybe that's a chance on my setup, but VMWare used to give the same name (aka en192 or en160 ...) for the same virtual NiCs connected (I always have 2-3 per VMs for various need). So I made the following test: configured manually the other NIC from a VM, with an IP and the same MASK (and disable the original NIC). I reproduce the Host Unreachable between guest. Long story short, as you don't have DHCP and hence configured manually IP/MASK, triple-check that both VM are really on the same VMNet2.

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  • @the_endian Sorry if it this is not the answer, but I didn't get enough rep to comment your post... :-( Commented Jan 30 at 16:59
  • As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please edit to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center. Commented Jan 30 at 17:27

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