VMware VM as physical networks bridge (LAN Bridge)

[littlefooch]

Can a VM be used to bridge two physical ethernet adapters to bridge two LAN networks?  Moreover, can this be done to connect two Thunderbolt Adapters in Windows?

Thunderbolt Networking promises peer to peer networking, except you can't bridge two Thunderbolt Adapters in current Windows releases using 'Bridge Connections'.  (actually you can do in earlier Win releases e.g. 1803).  An Intel white paper was published in 2014 showing how to do it.  You can't do it any longer in Windows.

Hence the question:  can a VMware VM be used to bridge two thunderbolt adapters?

Thanks.

LF

Attachment(s)

Thunderbolt™ Networking Bridging and Routing Instructiona...pdf   1.22 MB 1 version

[chrisgnoon]

You should be able to do it using VM workstation or VirtualBox and a third-party application such as vyos:

https://support.vyos.io/en/kb/articles/bridge-interfaces

Or you can use a Linux VM:

http://www.microhowto.info/howto/bridge_traffic_between_two_or_more_ethernet_interfaces_on_linux.html

Alternatively you could install Linux on the machine and do it natively using the above Linux.

[littlefooch]

thanks very much for your reply

as another thought, if I take a single hardware box using Win and install two VM's, each VM connected to a different external thunderbolt adapter on that machine, can I use a vswitch to connect the two VM's and in effect create a bridge/route from from TB adapter to the other? (the goal)

 

[chrisgnoon]

Create a single VM and attach both adapters to it.  Then using the Linux commands from the link above, bridge the two (2) interfaces.

[littlefooch]

certainly more simple, i'll give it a try thanks Chris

 

I had asked in AskUbuntu if the bridge in Ubuntu could bridge two thunderbolt adapters and the answer was no.....

(yeah I know that no doesn't always mean know - pun)

[littlefooch]

chris

Given your suggestion is for Linux, I assume you have not done this using a Windows host for the VM? (my muscle memory is Windows so I just started by reflex with a Windows host...)

In any case, wouldn't the host need drivers for Thunderbolt for the VM adapters connected to the externa machine thunderbolt adapters?

[littlefooch]

I'm running VM(ware) in Win10

Ubuntu is running in the VM

Thunderbolt devices are seen in Win10

Thunderbolt devices are not seen in VM/Ubuntu

Any idea what I need to do to make the TB devices visible to Ubuntu?

[chrisgnoon]

What are you using VirtualBox or Workstation?

I think you need to bridge the VM interfaces to the Ethernet/Thunderbolt adapters.  

The virtualization platform should only see Ethernet connections, regardless if they are names "Thunderbolt 1" of similar.  It will be treated as an Ethernet connection.

[littlefooch]

I'm stuck in the circle of not intuitively obvious

For any kind of function on Ubuntu 21.04 I need an internet connection during and after the install.  I've done an easy install twice w/o the thunderbolt and can't get my 'normal' ethernet connection passing through to Ubuntu using VMware.

Moving on to Virtual Box

[littlefooch]

I tried Virtual Box and that's of no help; i.e. if I create a Win VM, the device mgr in the VM cannot see TB devices at all; if it can't see the devices, nothing else is going to happen at the VM level

 

In VMware Workstation, I can't see devices beyond the 'bridged' ethernet that enables internet access.  And I can't see TB devices either; so of no use.

 

Thanks for your help.

I give up with VM's and Thunderbolt

That's why I'm running Win 1803 instead of Win Insider 11 since Win handles TB as a stepchild, not a real ethernet device.  thunderbolt networking for the Win world is connecting two Win machines together with a TB cable and they connect via IP over TB.  Nothing else works.

Interesting that Intel continues to advertise TB Networking with much more capability but Win doesn't provide it.

[chrisgnoon]

That's a shame, sorry it didn't work out.

[littlefooch]

As a bigger bonus last night I figured out how to get 'bridge connections' to work in current Win 11 Insider the way it used to work in 1803 and earlier.

Beautifully simple if I say so myself.

No intention of telling Microsoft or Intel for their fraternity behavior of ignoring customers. 

Thanks for hanging in there with me.

 

Cheers

LF

 

[chrisgnoon]

The VM shouldn't see thunderbolt adapters, it should only see ethernet connections.

[Rachit Gupta]

worked