VMware virtual networks sure are squeamish

I run a few heavy machines in VMs and have, for the most part, found it to be an excellent environment that practically guarantees isolation and provides administrators with a safety net that keeps them from ripping their hair out. But there are a few gotchas, and this one relates to bridged adapters.

Apparently, upgrading from VMware workstation 6.0 to 6.5 isn't guaranteed to work out of the box for Linux VMs. When the upgrade is complete, the Linux VMs fail to get IP addresses from the DHCP server. It turns out that a service called VMware Bridge Protocol that should be active on all physical Ethernet adapters, isn't working correctly. If it is removed and added manually, windows VMs get bridged just fine; but Linux VMs don't.

So, after a whole days of pulling my hair out, I figured I'd try rolling back the mess and guess what? Re-Installing workstation 6.0 gets the bridge protocol added automatically this time; but the linux vms were still off the wire! After wondering again, if it is the paravirtual kernel playing havoc with vmware's broken bridging protocol, I tried changing the network settings from being bridged, to manually using vmnet 0 and viola! The chatter on the wire is back on.

Of course, before selecting vmnet 0, I had to open the vmware virtual network editor and force it to not bridge automatically to a physical adapter, and then select vmnet 0 to use the Intel 10/100 ethernet adapter manually.

Yeah, this smells of some rotten fish; but hey, it sure beats running 15 physical servers eating away at the electricity and having to set up a freakish physical network to get em all running up to speed. I should begin looking into installing VMWare ESXi to isolate windows scruffles from these tailspins; but wonder if its worth it...