VMware Workstation 12, is an advanced virtualization software for running all kinds of Operating systems. It allows users to run multiple operating systems on a single machine or produces new virtual machines. Virtual Machines allow developers to run two or more operating systems, building another virtual system inside the first one.
Overview of VMware Workstation 12
VMware Workstation is VMware’s flagship desktop virtualization product. VMware Workstation has been powering the VMware-based development and test workflow for over a decade, becoming synonymous with VMware technology. It delivers new features that bring VMware Desktop Virtualization into the cloud era.
When we talk about the cloud, everyone thinks of some remote server in a foreign land with access to immense amounts of power, cooling, and connectivity. The truth however is that most rooms have more computing power than what was available at NASA 17 years ago! Today there are many devices capable of running VMware virtual machines; ranging from your laptop to workstations to even your smartphone and tablet.
The latest version of VMware vSphere 6 brings native support for Linux VMs to VMware vSphere environments with VMware Remote Console provides users the best of both worlds – a VMware-centric desktop experience and full VMware vSphere 6.0 management capabilities from this version.
Other new exciting features include enhancements to VMware Workstation application lifecycle management that allow users to create a single appliance bundle for use in multiple clouds, Shared Virtual Machines enabling better collaboration on development projects by allowing VMs to be shared, VMware AppCatalyst which enables developers to build applications faster and run them directly on their Mac or Linux PC.
Produce real Linux or Windows VM
VMWare directly from the VMware Workstation menu, without first having to convert it into an actual VM to be able to create virtual machines with them. This is being removed in favor of making only VMware images VM runnable within the VMware Workstation.
Workaround: There are two ways around this issue. 1) Users can still use VMware Converter (free) or another third-party software that supports creating VMDKs to convert their existing ISO or images into usable are Workstation 12 VMware Workstation 12 allows for the creation of real 11 allowed users to run a mere ISO or other imageVMware virtual machines running on VMware and VMware Player VMware. VMware vSphere and VMware ESX are not supported.
Configurable Virtual Networking
It has introduced a new feature which is its ability to configure VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for NAT Networking and Bridged Networking. It also allows you to add, edit or delete VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapters (VNICs) within this version.
VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter
It presents VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapters as individual network adapters on the host operating system. Unlike previous versions of VMware Workstation where all virtual networks were bridged to a single adapter; It provides an option for configuring multiple VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapters each with their own configuration settings such as MAC Addresses, IP Addresses, DHCP Servers, etc.
VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter is VMware’s implementation of the industry standard VMware Paravirtual NIC (PVNIC) which can be used by VMware ESXi 6.0 for more efficient networking.
The VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter replaces VMware PVLAN technology included in previous versions of VMware Workstation which had several limitations and was removed from newer versions of VMware Workstation. VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapters created using it allow only one active connection per adapter, therefore it supports jumbo frames on VMkernel or physical network adapters with MTU greater than 9000.
PVANTT Driver
The PVANTT driver feature that had been deprecated and unavailable within VMware vSphere 5.5 Update 3 and later releases has been re-introduced into it as the VMware PVLAN Driver. VMware has introduced the following changes in it:
VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter and VMware PVLAN Driver are automatically enabled on VMware ESXi hosts when using it. The VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter is used for both LAN and management traffic, while the VMware PVLAN Driver is used to maintain VLAN-based network isolation.
Unlike previous versions of VMware Workstation where VMware PVLAN can be configured using a limited number of adapters; You can configure up to 32 virtual networks with up to 32 adapters per virtual machine for each virtual network adapter type (VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter or VMware PVLAN Drivers).
Service Console Network
It includes VMXNET3 vSphere 4.1 VMware Paravirtual NICs which provide high throughput on VMware vSphere virtual machines. It supports VMXNET3 vSphere 4.1 VMware Paravirtual Adapters on VMware ESXi hosts, therefore VMkernel or physical network adapters cannot be used with an active connection to such adapters until the VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter is used with VMware ESXi 6.0 hosts
Ethernet Bridging
Previously supported within VMware Workstations 9 and 10 only; You can now use it to configure bridged networking for Linux guests using Network Address Translation (NAT), Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM), and other drivers such as VDE and OpenVswitch.
Bridged networking allows a virtual machine connected to a physical network rather than a VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch (VDS). It supports VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for virtual machines connected to VMware ESXi hosts using bridged networking. Bridged networks provide support for jumbo frames on physical network adapters with MTU greater than 9000.
VMware Network Isolation
It has been present since VMware Workstation 5 but was removed from VMware Workstation 6 and later versions; VMware Network Isolation has now been re-introduced in it with the ability to configure multiple isolated networks within a single virtual machine.
A virtual machine may have up to four active connections, therefore you can use both VMware PVLAN driver, as well as VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapters, created using it within a VMware Workstation virtual machine. VMware Network Isolation supports VMware PVLAN driver, VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapters, and VMXNET3 VSphere 4.1 VMware Paravirtual Adapters on VMware ESXi hosts up to (including) release 6.0 Update 2 using Bridged networking and the VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter on VMware ESXi 6.0 hosts for NAT and KVM virtual machines with multiple active connections using Bridged networking.
VMware NIC Hot-Plugging
You can now activate or de-activate an existing VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter without powering off the guest operating system in order to configure it or allow hardware traffic between it and the host computer’s network interfaces such as wired NICs (Network Interface Cards) or wireless NICs (Network Interface Cards). VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter can now be hot-plugged on VMware ESXi 5.0 and VMware ESXi 5.1 hosts; VMware PVLAN Driver can be hot-plugged for virtual machines running on VMware ESXi 6.0 hosts.
It was released as a free upgrade to VMware Workstation 11 owners who purchased their licenses in the previous year (2015). VMware is currently offering upgrades from VMware Workstation 9, 10,11, and 12 to version 13 at no additional cost for users who bought those licenses from January 2016 – January 2017 through its “Upgrade Accelerator”. VMware also offers a perpetual edition of VMware Workstation Pro with support whilst also offering subscription-based.
New Features in VMware Workstation 12:
- It comes with several new features and updates.
- It now lets you import Virtual Machines from VMware ESXi and VMware Fusion into VMware Workstation
- It allows you to easily move Virtual Machines between different VMware platforms: VMware ESXi, VMware Fusion, and VMware Workstation.
- VMware Tools have been updated to 11.0.3 for Windows XP 64bit (VMware-Tools-11.0.3-82385).
- VMware vSphere Client has been updated to 6.5 Added support for the latest processors including Intel Haswell, Broadwell, and AMD Kabini.
- Improved Drag & Drop support between hosts and guests VMDK files are now recognized by VMware Player as a disk image containing multiple VMs Added support for Unity 5.
System Requirements for VMware Workstation 12
- Operating System: Windows 7/8/8.1/10.
- Processor: Intel Dual Core processor or Core i3.
- Memory (RAM): 1GB of RAM is required.
- Hard Disk Space: 5 GB of free space required