vmxnet3 support for VirtualBox

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prenatip
Posts: 3
Joined: 18. Jul 2018, 16:12

vmxnet3 support for VirtualBox

Post by prenatip »

Dear VirtualBox developers and contributors,

Recently I noticed there are a lot of VM starting using vmxnet3. As example, Palo Alto VM (firewall), and F5 Big-IP LTM VE.

I've been trying to setup my own Palo Alto Firewall lab using my favorite hypervisor which was VirtualBox. Unfortunately, certain network interfaces just don't work.

I've spent many days troubleshooting this issue, capturing many tcpdump packets and observed similar pattern.
It seems like there are communication issue on Layer 1 and layer 2.

2 devices (Linux and Palo Alto VM) connected with the same network adapter type (internal) and within the same network range can't ping each other.

If I use similar network setting on 2 Linux VM, I don't have this issue at all.

Apparently, I'm not alone. Found similar problem posted on the following F5 forum.
I have been using a Big-IP LTM 10.1.0 VE Virtual Edition for several months under Virtual Box it worked great.
...
Please note, I don't want to switch to VMware even if it is free.
...
LTM VE 11.2.0 now requires VMXNET3 network adapter, which is not available in VirtualBox - this is a real show stopper for me.
Reference: https://devcentral.f5.com/questions/ltm ... virtualbox

Dear VirtualBox developers and contributors,

If you read this message, I would really appreciate if you can consider this request. I'm happy with VirtualBox and don't have any plan to move to VMWare yet at the moment.

Thank you for time and great job with VirtualBox. Keep it up :)
Martin
Volunteer
Posts: 2560
Joined: 30. May 2007, 18:05
Primary OS: Fedora other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: XP, Win7, Win10, Linux, OS/2

Re: vmxnet3 support for VirtualBox

Post by Martin »

As far as I know VMware has not realeased the specifications for the vmxnet3 virtual network card implementation.
Therefore it would be very difficult to develop a compatible adapter in/for VirtualBox.
michaln
Oracle Corporation
Posts: 2973
Joined: 19. Dec 2007, 15:45
Primary OS: MS Windows 7
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Any and all
Contact:

Re: vmxnet3 support for VirtualBox

Post by michaln »

You really have to take that up with the people creating the VMs. If they require VMware, they require VMware, we can't change that.
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