DHCP reservation with VMware Fusion and Vagrant

The primary network interface of a Vagrant (VMware) machine typically obtains a dynamic IP address from the vmnet-dhcpd process bound to the vmnet8 network. In a multi-machine Vagrant environment, it is preferable to reserve a static IP address for this interface to simplify connectivity with the Mac host for automation purposes.

Prerequisites

Steps

Quit the VMware Fusion application.
Open your favorite terminal emulator.
Generate a unique MAC address for the Vagrant machine primary network interface.

printf '00:0C:29:%02X:%02X:%02X\n' $((RANDOM%256)) $((RANDOM%256)) $((RANDOM%256))

output:

00:0C:29:26:C5:EF

Identify an available IP address from the vmnet8 virtual network.

grep -A16 subnet /Library/Preferences/VMware\ Fusion/vmnet8/dhcpd.conf

output:

subnet 172.16.239.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
        range 172.16.239.128 172.16.239.254;
        option broadcast-address 172.16.239.255;
        option domain-name-servers 172.16.239.2;
        option domain-name localdomain;
        default-lease-time 1800;                # default is 30 minutes
        max-lease-time 7200;                    # default is 2 hours
        option netbios-name-servers 172.16.239.2;
        option routers 172.16.239.2;
}
host vmnet8 {
        hardware ethernet 00:50:56:C0:00:08;
        fixed-address 172.16.239.1;
        option domain-name-servers 0.0.0.0;
        option domain-name "";
        option routers 0.0.0.0;
}

The range declaration has defined 128 to 254 for dynamic allocation.
Name servers and gateway use 2.
The VMnet adapter uses 1.

This leaves 3 to 127 for use within the /24 network. I select the 172.16.239.101 IP address for my example.

Add the base_mac and base_address attributes to the machine definition in the Vagrantfile.

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Vagrant.configure('2') do |config|
  config.vm.box = 'bento/ubuntu-24.04'
  config.vm.box_check_update = false
  config.vm.hostname = 'ubuntu'
  config.ssh.insert_key = false
  config.vm.provider 'vmware_desktop' do |v|
    v.ssh_info_public = true
    v.allowlist_verified = 'disable_warning'
    v.vmx['numvcpus'] = '2'
    v.vmx['memsize'] = '2048'
    v.base_mac = '00:0C:29:26:C5:EF'
    v.base_address = '172.16.239.101'
  end
end

Start the Vagrant machine.

vagrant up

Verify the host declaration has been added to the dhcpd.conf file.

grep -A7 'host 172.16.239.101' /Library/Preferences/VMware\ Fusion/vmnet8/dhcpd.conf

output:

host 172.16.239.101 {
        hardware ethernet 00:0C:29:26:C5:EF;
        fixed-address 172.16.239.101;
        option domain-name-servers 172.16.239.2;
        option domain-name localdomain;
        option netbios-name-servers 172.16.239.2;
        option routers 172.16.239.2;
}

Optionally, verify inside the Vagrant machine.

vagrant ssh

Get the MAC and IP address for the eth0 network interface.

for n in link addr; do ip -br ${n} sh eth0 | awk '{ print $3 }'; done

output:

00:0c:29:26:c5:ef
172.16.239.101/24

Prerequisites#

Steps#

Prerequisites

Steps