MacOS – Apple Remote Desktop multiple ports on one address / ip

macosNetworkremote desktopvirtualizationvmware

I am using Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) version 3.5.1 and I want to add computers to the list. I have several virtual machines running on an VMWare ESXi host. VMWare enables screen sharing via VNC but with different ports for different VMs.

So I have this:

ESXi host ip :      xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
First VM vnc port:  5901
Second VM vnc port: 5902
....

I am able to connect to each of those VMs via

open vnc://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:5901

I can also add the first VM to the ARD computer list. But when I add the second VM it overwrites the first VM because the ip address is the same. Is it possible to workaround this problem?

Thanks for your help!

EDIT:
I also tried to edit the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.RemoteDesktop.plist directly. Although I could create another entry which also shows up in ARD this second entry then has no network address assigned in ARD. So that does not help…

Best Answer

I'm not specifically familiar with ARD, but in general Apple assumes one IP = one computer. You'll be less likely to have these kinds of compatibility and interoperability issues if you give each VM its own IP address by using "bridged" networking on ESXi instead of NAT.

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