Nested virtualization

[abderahmane sadi]

Hello,

I have VMware Workstation Pro 17.6.2 installed on Windows 11 Pro machine. I'm using nested virtualization for my lab environment. I installed 3 ESXi 7.0.3 VMs, they are connected to the same subnet VMnet0 (Host-Only) 10.0.0.x/24

The problem is that the Hosts can't communicate to each other. I know that's due to Forged Transmits and MAC Address chnages options, these settings are not present in VMware Workstation.

I'm facing this problem from about 6 months now. Is here a solution for my problem? 

[MohammadHadi Milani]

I've set up my lab the same way using VMware Workstation and didn't run into that issue. If you're experiencing this, it's likely not due to the Host-Only switch in Workstation. I recommend checking the Management Network inside each ESXi host.

• Don't use VLAN tagging for now.

• Just add one vNIC to each ESXi VM and assign it as the uplink to vSwitch0.

• Keep the default settings on vSwitch0 and the port groups-don't modify them.

Test communication after this setup and let me know if it works.

[abderahmane sadi]

First of all, Thank you for the reply MohammadHadi.

As you said I did the default installation With one VNIC/Uplink on vSwitch0, Port Group Managment with VLAN 0 (Which is the default), With no security configured, all of them are reject, and as always, the 3 ESXi VMs configured in the same subnet with these IPs: 10.0.0.11/24, 10.0.0.12/24, 10.0.0.13/24 with no luck 😔

I tested with security accept in Port group settings, not working.

tried adding lines for promiscuous mode and Forged Transmits to accept in the VMX files for the ESXi VNs, not working as always. I think it's a mess because there is no such configuration in the official VMware documentation.

Tired of testing

[CarltonR]

As with MohammadHadi I too have a similar setup without any issues, although I use the VMware Workstation default NAT connection for the VMs.  So would suggest going back to basics, with a bit of lateral thinking and experimentation to see where the the issue may be.

Just to clarify when you say 'the Hosts can't communicate' what is it that is meant by this, icmp ping or some other protocol.

Q1: Were the three ESXi VMs cloned or installed individually, if cloned then suggest checking that they each have different MAC Address.

Q2. Have you check the ESXi and VMware Workstation logs.

Q3: have you setup any other operating system (Win, Linux) on the VMnet0 (Host-Only) and tested.

Q4: have you tried a VMware Workstation Bridge VM client connection, clearly changing the IP Address for each of the ESXi VMs.  Then test if they can not only communicate [ping] with each other, but also with the hosts subset default router.

. . . or alternately try VMware Workstation NAT VM client connection, changing the ESXi VMs to DHCP.