Understanding the NAT Device

The NAT device is connected to the VMnet8 virtual switch. Virtual machines connected to the NAT network also use the VMnet8 virtual switch.

The NAT device waits for packets coming from virtual machines on the VMnet8 virtual network. When a packet arrives, the NAT device translates the address of the virtual machine to the address of the host system before forwarding the packet to the external network.

When data arrives from the external network for the virtual machine on the private network, the NAT device receives the data, replaces the network address with the address of the virtual machine, and forwards the data to the virtual machine on the virtual network. This translation occurs automatically and requires minimal configuration on the guest operating system and the host system.

The NAT device is a DNS proxy and forwards DNS requests from the virtual machines to a DNS server that the host system knows. Responses return to the NAT device, which then forwards them to the virtual machines.

If they get their configuration information from the virtual DHCP server, the virtual machines on the NAT network use the NAT device as the DNS server. The virtual machines in the private NAT network are not accessible through DNS. To have the virtual machines running on the NAT network access each other by DNS names, you must set up a private DNS server connected to the NAT network and configure the virtual machines to use the DNS server.