After installing CentOS 6.2 i386 minimal ISO as a VMware virtual machine, immediate attempts to perform a yum update failed. The virtual machine network is bridged to the host computer. Pings to the router were successful, however, after some Internet searches, a solution that remediated this situation was found.

Before getting to the “fix”. An attempt to change the network IP using the ifconfig command successfully changed the IP, however, did not allow for the yum update to proceed without error.

ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.5 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
ifconfig eth0

It appears that this logic was on the correct track, as one site best described the difference between ifup eth0 and ifconfig eth0 up as “work[ing] [in] the same way. ifup will configure network based on /etc/network/interfaces. ifconfig use to configrue kernel resident network interfaces.” So, with most of the main compenents in place, however slightly misued and missing the dhclient eth0 command, another site writes the following commands which when executed successfully corrected the yum update issues.

ifup eth0
dhclient eth0

yum update -y

Source(s)
https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/rhel-centos-fedoracore-linux-network-card-configuration/
http://www.geekamongus.com/2011/12/27/vmware-rhel-centos-6-2-network-issues/#comment-34300
http://paragasu.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/ifup-eth0-vs-ifconfig-eth0-up/