topic Re: Add more network interfaces to simulator in Simulator Discussions

Add more network interfaces to simulator

bmorse — Sat, 03 May 2014 00:36:27 GMT

Can this be done in VMware Fusion? I get an error when trying to add more than (4) interfaces.

Re: Add more network interfaces to simulator

shatfield — Sat, 03 May 2014 19:54:02 GMT

Sure, but some hand editing of the vmx is required.

To add more nics, you need more PCI slots. To get more PCI slots, you need a PCI bridge.

Add the following snippet to your .vmx file.

pciBridge0.present = "TRUE"

pciBridge4.present = "TRUE"

pciBridge4.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"

pciBridge4.functions = "8"

pciBridge5.present = "TRUE"

pciBridge5.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"

pciBridge5.functions = "8"

pciBridge6.present = "TRUE"

pciBridge6.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"

pciBridge6.functions = "8"

pciBridge7.present = "TRUE"

pciBridge7.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"

pciBridge7.functions = "8"

This works best on a clean never-booted vmx file. If you get PCI slot errors after adding this code, change the slot number of the problematic devices to -1, which tells the hyper visor to pick an open slot at boot.

Re: Add more network interfaces to simulator

bmorse — Tue, 30 Sep 2014 19:58:28 GMT

I'm getting the following errors after creating an ifgrp in the simulator.

Re: Add more network interfaces to simulator

shatfield — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 05:18:11 GMT

neat. is that in fusion?

Best guess is fusion cant cope with seeing duplicate macs.

I know single mode vifs work on esx. I have one configured that way now.

In this example from a sim on ESX, I have e0c & e0d in vif1.

Both ports now have the virtual mac of the vif:

vsim101> ifconfig -a
e0a: flags=0xe48867<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet 192.168.126.101 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.126.255
partner e0a (not in use)
ether 00:50:56:91:cc:65 (auto-1000t-fd-up) flowcontrol full
e0b: flags=0xe08866<BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether 00:50:56:91:d1:ea (auto-1000t-fd-up) flowcontrol full
e0c: flags=0x8e48867<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether 02:50:56:91:cc:65 (auto-1000t-fd-up) flowcontrol full
trunked vif1
e0d: flags=0x8e08867<BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether 02:50:56:91:cc:65 (auto-1000t-fd-up) flowcontrol full
trunked vif1
e0e: flags=0x4e48867<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,NOWINS> mtu 1500
inet 192.168.122.101 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.122.255
partner e0e (not in use)
ether 00:50:56:91:83:69 (auto-1000t-fd-up) flowcontrol full
e0f: flags=0xe48867<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet 192.168.122.103 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.122.255
partner e0f (not in use)
ether 00:50:56:91:c7:73 (auto-1000t-fd-up) flowcontrol full
e0g: flags=0xe48867<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,ACP_PORT> mtu 1500 PRIVATE
inet 192.168.2.237 netmask 0xfffffc00 broadcast 192.168.3.255 noddns
ether 00:50:56:91:b2:01 (auto-1000t-fd-up) flowcontrol full
e0h: flags=0xe00864<RUNNING> mtu 1500 PRIVATE
ether 00:50:56:0e:50:9a (auto-1000t-fd-up) flowcontrol full
lo: flags=0x1b48049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,TCPCKSUM> mtu 9188
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000 broadcast 127.0.0.1
losk: flags=0x40a400c9<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING> mtu 9188
inet 127.0.20.1 netmask 0xff000000 broadcast 127.0.20.1
vif1: flags=0x20e48863<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet 192.168.121.11 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.121.255
partner vif1 (not in use)
ether 02:50:56:91:cc:65 (Enabled interface groups)
vsim101>

Re: Add more network interfaces to simulator

MarkTayler — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 20:04:30 GMT

How did you add ports e0e - e0h to the simulator running in ESX ?

Re: Add more network interfaces to simulator

SeanHatfield — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 14:01:22 GMT

Looks like you figured it out, but for future readers of this thread...

If the simulator was deployed using the OVA package, or was converted to an OVA/OVF prior to deployment, then the bridge is automatically created and all you need to do is add NICs in the VMware GUI.

If the simulator was deployed from the older TGZ or ZIP packages, then the VMX file will need to be modified like shown in my older post above.

Also, port channels don't work in 8.3+ in the simulator. I've got a workaround but its long winded. If someone needs it I'll write it up.

Re: Add more network interfaces to simulator

Balaz — Tue, 09 May 2017 09:27:52 GMT

I got a error message so i remove existing 4 NIC add new 6 NIC now it working fine

Thanks for e help 🙂

Re: Add more network interfaces to simulator

dianasim — Tue, 25 Jul 2017 17:44:27 GMT

HELLO

I AM TRYNG TO SETUP VSIM ONTAPP 8.2.3 CLUSTER MODE DOWNLOADED ON THE NETAPP SITE BUT I NEED MORE NETWORK INTERFACES. WHEN I ADD THE COMMAND ON MY VMX FILE THE FILE RESULTED CORRUPTED PLEASE SOMEBODY CAN EXPLAINS ME HOW TO ADD IT ?

Manythanks.

Re: Add more network interfaces to simulator

SeanHatfield — Tue, 25 Jul 2017 17:53:00 GMT

The VMX file format is very particular. One thing to watch for is duplicate lines. For example you may have something like "pciBridge0.present" in there twice.