Networking between OS X host, Windows Server 2016, and Windows 10 client

[besnova]

Hi all,

Oracle VirtualBox Version 5.1.6 r110634 (Qt5.5.1), running on
MacBook Pro with Retina Display (OS X El Capitan Version 10.11.6 (64-bit))
I've attached both VirtualBox logs (for both virtual machines) as required, but don't think we'd need it anyways.

I'm trying to create a small virtual environment where I have:
- 1 virtual machine running Windows Server 2016 (64-bit), and
- 1 virtual machine running Windows 10 Pro (64-bit)

My goal is to configure the network so that both virtual machines can communicate with each other (client can join server domain, server can test SCCM on client) and have both virtual machines connected to the internet through my mac's wi-fi.

I was able to set up the server end with the first network adapter being the internal network and the second network adapter being bridged to my mac's wi-fi adapter. The client end is just set up with the network adapter being the internal network. Both virtual machines can communicate with each other but only the server can communicate with the internet via my mac's wi-fi. I tried setting up bridging on both virtual machines, but I want the client to act like a client and to access the internet directly through the server, and the server through my mac. Is there an easier way to do this?

I've also set up DHCP so the client is getting an IP from the server.

Any information is useful.

[socratis]

I want the client to act like a client and to access the internet directly through the server

I'm not a network expert, but it seems to me that the client should not be using Bridged networking, because it's going to use your host's connection. What you would need is some network sharing from the server. And since this is more of a Windows networking question rather than a Mac host question, I'm going to move your topic to the "Windows Guests" forum, in hopes that we'll find more Windows expert users.

[BillG]

If you want to run a Windows domain, put all the vms in their own private network. The best way to do that in VirtualBox is to use an internal virtual network. If you want to run DHCP, run it on the domain controller. Bridged won't do if you want to run Active Directory (ie a domain setup).

Internet access is harder. I would forget about that until you get your domain running. (I would also forget access from the host). It involves running a NAT router in a virtual machine to link your domain network to your physical network. It also involves changes to the DNS settings (because the AD client must use the local DNS only, so the DC must be able to resolve foreign URLs for itself and its client(s). All of this is Windows related really. Find a good guide for setting up a domain on physical machines. The config is almost identical.

[scottgus1]

As Bill mentioned, the domain guests will have a private network - use Virtualbox's "Internal". To add internet to the internal network that the test domain is on, use another guest with a router OS like pfSense - these router OS's are lightweight, so another guest will not heavily impact your host, even if you have to over-provision your processors to get the extra guest.

The router guest will have two network cards. One is attached to the internal network the domain guests are attached to, as the router's LAN port. The other card is attached to the host via Bridged, and is the router's WAN port.

Such an internal network and virtual router will be able to see the host's network services and shared folders accessed by IP address. If you want to block off the host altogether but still allow internet into the guest network, use the above setup but set your guests' IP address range different than the host's address range. Then use a firewall rule like this one in the virtual router to block access to the host's IP address range from the guest network LAN. Mind that you don't turn on the router OS DHCP - the server should handle that.

Example: the typical IP address range for home routers is 192.168.1.whatever, and a mask of 255.255.255.0. You set your guest server's DHCP to 10.0.1.whatever, same mask. Set up the firewall rule to block access from the LAN to the 192.168.1. range, and your host is blocked, but internet flows freely.