VMware Workstation Pro

Installing NetScope OVA VMware virtual appliance on VMware Workstation Pro

Nb. Leave ‘powering on’ the Netscope virtual appliance until the end of these instructions.

1. In Workstation, select File > Open.
2. Browse to the .ovf or .ova file and click Open.

1. Browse to the NetScope.ova virtual machine file.
2. Click Import.

If you’re monitoring data from a managed switch Mirror or SPAN port, you will need to create a Virtual Network Switch to bridge to a physical network interface on your host Machine. NetScope can use this bridged network interface to read data directly from the physical switch. The image below shows a physical cable (shown here as a dotted line) running from the managed switches’ mirror port connected to Netscope’s capture port.

See also Set up network switch for port mirroring .

To create a Virtual Network Interface to connect to a specific physical Network Interface:

1. Select ‘Edit’ from the top menu.
2. Click on ‘Virtual Network Editor’.

First you will need to make sure you’re running the Virtual Network Editor with Administrator privileges. There may be the following at the bottom of the Virtual Network Editor window:

First one can check that the VMnet0, the virtual network (switch), that Netscope management/monitor port is connected to, is bridged to your desired host network adapter.

Then to connect Netscope’s capture port to the mirror port on the physical switch we want to add another virtual network (switch) that will connect Netscope’s (remember running as a guest OS on the VMware) eth1 interface to the host machine’s network adapter which will be connected by cable to the mirror port on the physical switch.

1. Click ‘Add Network’.
2. Choose an unused VMnet from the drop-down list and click ‘OK’.

1. Select the VMnet you chose in the previous step.
2. Change the option to ‘Bridged’.
3. From the drop-down list select the physical network interface you want to use to connect to the mirror port on the switch.
4. Click ‘OK’ to finish.

Check your NetScope virtual machine settings and configure network adapter 2

1. Choose the imported NetScope VM from the left hand menu.
2. Click on ‘Edit virtual machine settings’.

• Check the Memory is set to 1 GB or more. NetScope requires 1GB of RAM at a minimum.
• Since Netscope is data intensive a couple of cores should be assigned at least. But according to VMware documentation: “Assigning all processors on your computer to the virtual machine results in extremely poor performance. The host operating system must continue to perform background tasks even if no applications are running. If you assign all processors to a virtual machine, this prevents important tasks from being completed.”
• Even though the hard disk says 200GB, it is not pre-allocated. So it grows as Netscope needs it. In the picture above you can see it starts at around 1.4GB.  The duration of a DEMO licence of Netscope should not require more than 8GB.
• Except for the Network adapters, covered in the next section, the other devices are either Auto-detected or are unimportant to Netscope’s function.

Change Network Adapter 2 settings.

1. Highlight ‘Network Adapter 2’ from the device list.
2. Choose ‘Custom’ from the Network connection settings and chose the VMnet you set in the Virtual Network Editor.
3. Click ‘OK’.

Now you need to power on the NetScope Virtual Appliance. The console window will appear and once boot is complete it should show you an IP address obtained by DHCP.

Enter this IP address into your browser.

Follow the steps in ‘Log in and Obtain a License‘ for a NetScope DEMO license.