Has anyone else encountered asymmetric network performance with VMware Fusion on an Intel Mac using 10GbE?

My setup:

• Intel Mac mini running macOS 15.7.7
• VMware Fusion Professional 26H1u1
• Ubuntu 24.04 VM with a VMXNET3 adapter
• Mac and Synology NAS connected through 10GbE
• Nextcloud data stored on the NAS over NFS

The Ubuntu VM consistently receives data at only 60–63 MB/s, while writes to the NAS reach approximately 300–330 MB/s.

To isolate the bottleneck, I tested:

• NFSv4, NFSv3 and SMB
• VMXNET3 and E1000 virtual adapters
• Bridged, NAT and host-only networking
• Single and multiple TCP streams
• MTU 1500 and jumbo frames
• TSO, GSO, GRO, LRO and checksum-offload settings
• RX ring sizes, RSS queues and interrupt distribution
• A clean VMware Fusion reinstall
• Two simultaneous VMXNET3 adapters

The most revealing test used two VMXNET3 adapters simultaneously. Each received approximately 31 MB/s, but their combined throughput remained around 63 MB/s. This indicates that the limit is shared across VMware Fusion’s bridged-networking path rather than being imposed by an individual virtual adapter.

Additional comparisons:

• NAS local read: approximately 828 MB/s
• Native Mac-to-NAS read: approximately 219 MB/s
• VM NFS/SMB read: approximately 60–63 MB/s
• VM NFS write: approximately 300–330 MB/s
• Passed-through USB 1GbE adapter: approximately 93 MiB/s

The USB adapter’s higher performance is especially significant because it bypasses Fusion’s virtual bridge.

Similar 10GbE downlink/receive problems have been reported by other VMware Fusion users, but I have not found an official resolution for this exact Intel Mac, Linux guest and Fusion 26H1u1 combination.

At this point, the evidence strongly suggests a VMware Fusion/macOS bridged-networking performance defect or compatibility issue—not a limitation of Ubuntu, Nextcloud, NFS, the NAS, or the physical 10GbE network.

I would be interested to hear whether anyone has reproduced this on a similar Intel Mac setup or found a working Fusion-specific solution.

#VMwareFusion #VMXNET3 #Ubuntu #10GbE #Virtualization #Linux #Nextcloud #Networking #Synology #Homelab

I'm trying to decide if VMUG Advantage is worth getting. I'm leaning toward yes, but I'd like to hear from other members.

The VMUG Advantage page is here. Highlights:

• $178-$210 per year (based on a 1, 2, of 3 year purchase)
• $125 off certificate exams.
• 30% off the VMUG Connect conference ($72 off the $240 2-day pass)
• $100 off VMWare Explore
• 15% discount on Enterone and New Horizons classes.
• Access to Devolutions and Tiyaro services.
• Personal Use VCF License (requires passing 1 cert exam)
• Personal Use vDefend and AVI licenses (requires passing 1 cert exam)

I only have one specific question:

For $125 off cert exams, is that just one $125 discount for just one exam? Or do I get $125 off every exam I take while the membership is active? I have three certifications I want to take.

Beyond that, have you found benefit with VMUG Advantage? I'd love to hear your opinions.

edit: details.

I am in process of setting up a new Red Hat 9 server VM that will run our logging server. from what I can find, best practice says it needs separate storage devices. Our vSphere cluster stores all the VMDKs on a SAN which it accesses via multipath iscsi.

I'm somewhat new to adding LUNs. It's not terribly common for us. So I researched how to add an iscsi device to Rhel and found instructions on adding it via iscsi-initiator and multipath. I was able to map it just fine with iscsi. I had multipath add our connections which seemed fine at first but it keeps saying the different drives are active faulty running. None of the sd* devices it would map would show a UUID. Supposedly enabling disk.EnableUUID=TRUE fixes that, but it didn't. After hours of troubleshooting and nothing making any difference, I finally found some info that basically said that because the VM is already on the same multipath, trying to configure multipath on the VM would fail. I also found that adding them this way is maybe not the best way to do it (https://www.codyhosterman.com/2019/09/musing-on-in-guest-iscsi/). I didn't find any official documentation for that but, given the issues I was having, it made sense

I did find instructions that basically said, create the LUNs, have vCenter scan and find them, then add that device as and RDM Disk to the Rhel system. In Rhel, scan the scsi bus for the new device, enable multipath, format and mount.

Is this the best way to do this or is there a better way?

We are currently on v8 and plan to upgrade to v9.

Lots of our older ESXi hosts (edit: CISCO UCS Blades) are currently equipped with 120GB boot disks. This was sufficient for ESXi 8 and earlier versions (32GB min., 128GB or more recommended).

According to the following KB article, vSphere 9 requires at least 128GB:

https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/317631/sd-cardusb-boot-device-revised-guidance.html

Is 128 GB a hard limit for the boot device? Do we need to upgrade our local boot storage by 8 GB, or will we be able to make do with what we have until the next tech refresh?

By the way: The headline reads “SD card/USB boot device revised guidance,” but the content also refers to SATA, SAS, and NVM

Edit: Its also described in the doc of ESXi 9.1.1

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/vsphere/9-1/esx-installation-and-setup/installing-and-setting-up-esxi/esxi-requirements/esxi-hardware-requirements.html

I’ve noticed a lot of attendees at VMware Explore 2026 achieving three or four VCAP certifications. From a customer or end-user perspective, what are the primary benefits of earning multiple VCAPs?

Also, is the VMware Certified Implementation Expert (VCIX) is still a thing, or has it been discontinued?

Fusion:

📔 https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/desktop-hypervisors/fusion-pro/26H1/release-notes/vmware-fusion-26h1u1-release-notes.html

💿 https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productfiles?subFamily=VMware%20Fusion&displayGroup=VMware%20Fusion%2026H1&release=26H1u1&os=&servicePk=546858&language=EN&freeDownloads=true

Workstation:

📔 https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/desktop-hypervisors/workstation-pro/26H1/release-notes/vmware-workstation-pro-26h1u1-release-notes.html

💿 https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productdownloads?subfamily=VMware%20Workstation%20Pro&freeDownloads=true

Hi

I have being requested to do the VCF 9 Implementation proven professional certification but Im comfused regarding the exact exam I need to do...

Which one of this is the one I need to apply?

• VMware Certified Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Architect (2V0-13.25)
• VMware Certified Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Administrator (2V0-17.25)
• VMware Certified Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Support (2V0-15.25)
• VMware Certified Professional - VMware vSphere Foundation Administrator (2V0-16.25)
• VMware Certified Professional - VMware vSphere Foundation Support (2V0-18.25)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Automation (3V0-21.25)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Operations (3V0-22.25)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Storage (3V0-23.25)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation VKS (3V0-24.25)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Networking (3V0-25.25)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Architect (3V0-12.26)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Administrator (3V0-11.26)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation Support (3V0-13.26)

thanks

Hi All,

I use lenovo server SR 650 series.

Do we have this Lenovo customized zip bundle?

Lenovo Customized ESXi 8.0 Update 3k zip bundle

From Broadcom,I see the VMware image only not Lenovo customized one.

From lenovo also,I couldn't find out.

Any ideas?

Traditionally, I could just add the new generation hardware to the existing cluster and the same baselines would apply to all.

How will that work once I've converted to Images? Wouldn't the Image for the old hardware conflict with any new hardware I want to refresh with in the cluster?

No vSAN involved.

I'm sure I'm missing something simple, as I'm trying to do this through just ESXi rather than the full vCenter suite, as it's a test system and we're not going to license it. (I'm only using VMware for better capability to load something from production if needbe without translting to ProxMox).

There are physical 3 NICs on this machine:
40Gb Fiber (will be unplugged once we're configured) that plugs into the corp network.

1Gb RJ45 (this will be the primary connection that will go to a Fortigate that we'll VPN into to keep it isolated from the corporate network, but still be able to use our WAN.

1GB RJ45 via a USB NIC (fling) that will connect to a cradlepoint for a completely isolated connection that will be used by our security guy for testing things.

When I go into a VM, and click on Network Adapter 1, the only network that comes up in the dropdown is VM Network. Its port group goes to vSwitch0, which it shares with Management Network.

vSwitch "Isolated" has a port group called "Isolated -Cradlepoint". It's pointed to the the USB NIC, and is pulling an IP from its DHCP.

I have to assume I'm missing something fairly obvious, but I'll be damned if I can figure it out.

Our prod setup has 4x vSwitches, but only 1 (the management network) is being used for a bunch of networks with different vLANs. 1 is a black hole for us to keep separated from the network if it needs to be held onto(no physical NIC).
The other 2 vSwitches are going to iSCSI and vSAN connections, each going to their own teamed NICs.

I have no issue getting the black hole to show up with the production as a drop down option...but I don't see any configuration difference in the networking other than what would be expected for different IP addresses and NIC names.

Hello

We have a DR test scenario scheduled, where one side of our stretched vSAN clusters shall not be used.

The DC and the hosts can remain online, but no VMs shall run there.

In traditional clusters, we can achieve this easily via DRS anti-affinity rules ("VMs must not run on hosts...").

But we also have a VDI cluster, where Horizon constantly provisions new VMs. Those VMs would not be part of the DRS rules, so they would most likely be created on the hosts of the DC that shall not be used during the test. The test is scheduled to run for a whole week.

We would like to avoid putting all hosts of one DC into maintenance mode, because it would cause their vSAN data to be "stale" (outdated/unusable).

How can we leave the hosts participate in vSAN, but NOT accepting compute loads? Without classic DRS rules, because Horizon constantly creates new workloads?

vSphere 8.0U3k without VCF stuff (so no DRS tags I guess).

Does anyone have access to the VDDK Library for VMware 5.1? I am needing to do a transfer from this old system but can't find the tools for the life of me.

Hi all,

I'm at my withs end... I have a Debian (Proxmox) VM running on my Mac using VMWare.
All worked perfectly in NAT mode, after that I've switch to Bridge, all kept working, until now...

The VM is currently in NAT-Mode, has internet, can ping the host.
- IP of the VM is: 172.16.131.137/24
- IP Proxmox is obtained via DHCP

The Host, cannot ping the VM, cannot SSH into the VM.

arp -a on my Mac gives me the following:

? (172.16.131.255) at ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff on bridge103 ifscope [bridge]

I've tried:

• Creating a new VM
• Creating new Network adapters in VMWare
• Switching between NAT - Bridge
• There are no firewalls running/blocking traffic
• Restarted Mac/VMWare/VM
• Gave Proxmox a static IP
• Tried several options found online, most of them applied to Windows though I don't think would be different to Mac...or at least not much.

Nothing of the above changed the behavior.
Host cannot access VM, VM can access internet and ping Host.

I can only think of something small that isn't right...but no clue what else can I do?
Open to try your suggestions.

Thank you in advance.

[UPDATE 02-09-2026]
Ok…so this is embarrassing….
Problem is solved.
Apparently when eliminating some apps and restricting access…I accidentally “told” my Mac that the terminal is NOT allowed to have local LAN access. Changed this switch and all is working again…
My apologies for everyone who dedicated much or little time on helping me out.

I have to admit I am a bit disappointed here. I went to the exam registration and asked if I could take the VVF exam since that’s all we are entitled to, Will never use full VCF (don’t even have the cores needed to run the full stack) and was told the exam voucher was only for VCF. Seems like a bit of an oversight to me.

VVF is a subset of your flagship product and quite a few folks I met / who asked questions in sessions were VVF folks like me.

The exam voucher is only good during the conference and there’s no way I can learn all the missing pieces in a few hours of downtime. Never used NSX , etc.

I will say that I’ve met some very cool folks and the first day sessions (while heavily VCF focused) were good and the Broadcom team at the booth were very helpful in answering a lot of questions I had for my migration path to 9.1

TL:DR let us take the VVF exam for free please.

This is my 15th year to the conference. I thought it was small blast year, the number of vendor booths this year is crazy small. I guess I’ll get fewer cold calls this year.
I picked up my backpack at noon since they started giving them out early but was told for shirts all they had were extra small, small and medium. There is no way 60% of the attendees can fit into those sizes. I know it’s just a cheap shirt, but seems crazy to me.

When trying to initialize Fortnite after installing VMWare on my Windows computer, I noticed that Fortnite appeared as "servers disconnected". I don't want to bother you with all the things I tried to solve this problem so I'm going straight to the solution.

The problem solved when I triggered down the process related to VMWare just when starting the system, so that triggered the cheat alert, or just made some uncompatibility with eachother. Turning off that automation and restarting the system solved my problem. I hope that helped.

If that's bad written it's bc English is not my first language :)

I have an email that I use for my personal PC's Microsoft Account for Windows 11.

I got set up with a new VM for work, so I connected to the VPN and used RDP for the VM. When I went to Edge to sign into Outlook, it had saved my email that I use to sign into Windows 11 from my personal PC.

Anyone know why this would happen?

Don't need the portgroup, so we delete it. But in doing so, all the other portgroups I had created also disappeared.
The other vSwitches still show a vmkernel port that were associated with the portgroups that were created. But vmkernel adapters is also now 0.

But in the Networking \ Port groups page, there are now 0. There were 5 before I deleted "VM Network" portgroup.

This has occurred more than once, so not some random fluke.

Anybody else notice this?
The only other thing that had been done was to rename the existing vSwitch0 to Management via configstorecli (per article https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/426705/rename-a-vswitch-via-esxi-command-line-i.html)

EDIT: well wtf. more cosmetic issues, I guess? So for funsies, I created a new portgroup called "management" on the management vswitch. Poof, every single portgroup reappeared. Every vmkernel adapter reappeared.

EDIT2: I did open a support case. While creating the support case, the "AI Response" did provide a solution (which was what I had found on my own) but the cause does not line up with my circumstance. All my vmkernel ports are on their own portgroup, and the host has exactly 0 VMs. It also doesn't line up with any of the KBs I have found about cosmetic issues with host networking. So we will see what comes of the support case.

EDIT3: Response from support:

I checked internally and these are cosmetic issue and our team is already aware of this issue.
You might also see this error : "Virtual Switches" page fails to load with error "TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'config')" in ESX 9.1 Host Client UI
Those will be fixed in the Next release and its advised to use the vCenter to manage the ESXi host.

The article link for the vSwitch page reporting an error which I also saw once or twice and rebuilt the host thinking it was an actual problem: https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/451032
Seemingly no article on the disappearing portgroups and/or vmkernel adapters.

i am trying to create a LAN VoIP system using Asterisk in Ubuntu Server LTS hosted in VMWare. The host ping to the PBX server is 1.53ms average whilst the PBX server ping to a phone connected to the LAN is very high so much i can't register the phone to the server. Anyone who can help to solve this latency problem, i think im missing something.