Communicating Between Host and Guest

To communicate between a guest virtual machine and its host, establish a VMCI sockets connection using the SOCK_DGRAM socket type, or on product platforms that support it (most do), the SOCK_STREAM socket type.

VMCI Sockets and Networking

If limited network access is sufficient for a virtual machine, you could replace TCP networking with VMCI sockets, thereby saving memory and processor bandwidth by disabling the network stack. If networking is enabled, as it typically is, VMCI sockets can still make some operations run faster.

Setting Up a Networkless Guest

You can install a virtual machine without any networking packages, so it cannot connect to the network. The system image of a network-free operating system is likely to be small, and isolation is a security advantage, at the expense of convenience. Install network-free systems as a networkless guest. After installing VMware Tools, the host can use VMCI sockets to communicate with the networkless guest.

You create a networkless guest with the option “Do not use a network connection” in the Workstation wizard. Alternatively, you can transform a network-capable guest into a networkless guest by removing all its virtual networking devices in the Workstation UI.