Export VMware Workstation Virtual Network Settings

I am using VMware® Workstation 12 Pro and setup a very complex networking config with multiple NIC’s, DHCP, Host-Only and VLANs. I have 10 active VM’s that needs to setup a complex environment and most of these VM’s needs 3.5GB to 2GB RAM to run with 2vCPU each. I could only run 4 at a time (maybe 5 if I really pushed it – I literally had a small desk-fan to cool down my laptop).  I use a Razer Blade (GeForce GTX 1060) 14″ Laptop and it’s got 16GB RAM with GTX 1060. But it wasn’t cutting it. So I decided to go on and buy a new Workstation for my Virtual Machines (I bought a Dell Precision T7600 Tower Server with 128GB RAM (yeah baby!). But anywho, now I need to move all the virtual machines to this new T7600 and realized that it will take quite some time re-creating all the complex Virtual Network Settings in there. I started looking around if there’s a way to export VMware Workstation Virtual Network Settings and found that it’s quite possible. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Run Command Prompt as Administrator

On Windows 10, Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 search for command and simply right-click Command Prompt shortcut from the search results and select Run as administrator. Don’t use Powershell as sometimes it can get tricky.
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Step 2: Use vnetlib.exe or vnetlib64.exe to export Virtual Network SettingsExport VMware Workstation Virtual Network Settings - blackMORE Ops - 1

Depending on which version of Windows and flavor you’re running, you either use vnetlib.exe or vnetlib64.exe to export VMware Workstaion Virtual Network Settings.

In my case, I was running Windows 10 Enterprise 64bit.

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.15063]
(c) 2017 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>cd ..

C:\Windows>cd ..

C:\>cd "Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\

C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation>vnetlib64.exe -- export C:\VMwareWorkstaionNetworkConfig.txt

C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation>

Step 3: Use vnetlib.exe or vnetlib64.exe to import Virtual Network Settings

Importing is same, except you type in import instead of export in the same command and define the path. e.g.

C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation>vnetlib64.exe -- import C:\VMwareWorkstaionNetworkConfig.txt
[amazon_link asins=’B01NAYL9H2′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’blop-20-us’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’e826c4fd-c99e-11e7-8f1e-516ac413fd3c’]

Summary

So, in short, run command prompt as administrator and run the following commands depending on what you OS is.

32bit host:
vnetlib.exe -- export backup-file-name
vnetlib.exe -- import backup-file-name
64bit host
vnetlib64.exe -- export backup-file-name
vnetlib64.exe -- import backup-file-name

Hopefully it will help someone somewhere. And it should work similarly for Linux as well. (just different binary filename eh?).

Reference

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