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Host Only Adapter stopped working

Posted: 17. Jul 2012, 16:11
by joeller
I had a problem with a hard drive becoming corrupted. So we had to attach a backed up copy of the hard drive and the vbox files. That all worked fine. But then we found that IE on the host can no longer locate web sites on the guest, particularly the SSRS report server web site. We had no problems before this event for the last three months. The network setting on the VM shows as "host Only adapter" as it should be, with "promiscuous mode" set to "allow all", and "cable connected" checked.

This was not a problem before we worked with the problem. In addition, we cannot use our Business Intelligence Development Studio on the the host to design and deploy reports to the the Report Server on the VM any more. This is a major issue.

Nothing I have found shows any incorrect setting in our setup (although the chapter in the "current" manual on host only adapter does not match the current version of VirtualBox).

Does anyone have a method by when I can proceed? POI: Windows 7 host; Windows Server 2003 guest; Host only adapter; Intel Pro/1000 MT Desktop (82540EM); Promiscuous mode allow all; cable connected Port forwarding

IPconfig on host shows IP Address 192.168.56.101 IPconfig on guest shows 192.168.56.102

NdisDeviceType key is not present in the registry. I read the post here viewtopic.php?f=9&t=27924 and went to the recommended blogs as well as the MSDN page. I confess I was not able to understand what desired. The response by mpack referred to this post http://robboek.com/2008/12/18/vmware-un ... -2008-fix/ which referred to the setting of an registry setting that does not exist on my machine. The msdn reference http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... 85%29.aspx talks about some INF file but does not specify which INF file.

So I am not clear on why this worked, why this stopped working and what am I supposed to do.

Re: Host Only Adapter stopped working

Posted: 17. Jul 2012, 16:28
by Perryg
IPconfig on host shows IP Address 192.168.56.101 IPconfig on guest shows 192.168.56.102
Using default settings, I would expect the host address to be 192.168.56.1.
Run VBoxManage list hostonlyifs in a terminal/command window and see if the defaults are different.

Re: Host Only Adapter stopped working

Posted: 17. Jul 2012, 16:40
by joeller
This is the result of VBmanage List hostonlyifs

C:\_Program_Files_VFS\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage list hostonlyifs
Name: VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
GUID: f8d4286d-3dd6-4cc9-ae59-dbd84063e678
Dhcp: Enabled
IPAddress: 192.168.56.101
NetworkMask: 255.255.255.0
IPV6Address:
IPV6NetworkMaskPrefixLength: 0
HardwareAddress: 08:00:27:00:b4:f2
MediumType: Ethernet
Status: Up
VBoxNetworkName: HostInterfaceNetworking-VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter

Re: Host Only Adapter stopped working

Posted: 17. Jul 2012, 16:51
by Perryg
So I must assume this is a custom host-only. Did you intend to make these changes?
Can you ping the guest from the host and the host from the guest? (icmp needs to be enabled for ping to work)

I am attaching a screen shot of the default settings in case you want to try to set it back. (located in the preference and network section).
host-only-1.png
host-only-1.png (25.24 KiB) Viewed 24430 times
host-only-2.png
host-only-2.png (28.41 KiB) Viewed 24430 times

Re: Host Only Adapter stopped working

Posted: 17. Jul 2012, 17:18
by joeller
Those screenshots look nothing like the interface I see with preferences\networking. I have powerpoint with screenshots from preferences\networking and of networking tab of settings details window. But forum will not allow me to upload it or pdf made from it . Nor would it allow me to post png larger than 128 kb. So here are two of the screen shots.
My VBox Version is 4.1.8 r75467
VBoxNetworkPreferences.png
VBoxNetworkPreferences.png (21.07 KiB) Viewed 24428 times
VBoxNetworkTab.png
VBoxNetworkTab.png (29.54 KiB) Viewed 24428 times

Re: Host Only Adapter stopped working

Posted: 17. Jul 2012, 17:22
by Perryg
Click the screw driver in the top image. This opens the edit function.

Re: Host Only Adapter stopped working

Posted: 17. Jul 2012, 17:24
by joeller
I can PING both IP address from the guest and neither IP address from the host.
VBoxIPConfighost.png
VBoxIPConfighost.png (11 KiB) Viewed 24427 times
VBoxPINGHost.png
VBoxPINGHost.png (13.12 KiB) Viewed 24427 times
VBoxIPConfigPingGuest.png
VBoxIPConfigPingGuest.png (18.86 KiB) Viewed 24427 times

Re: Host Only Adapter stopped working

Posted: 17. Jul 2012, 17:27
by Perryg
You need to enable icmp in the host or guest. They are not enabled by default these days.
But I suspect something in a configuration of the host-only as the problem.

Re: Host Only Adapter stopped working

Posted: 17. Jul 2012, 17:46
by joeller
Changing the IP address of the host to 192.168.56.1 did the trick. PING,and IE can now both see the the guest. see below. Interestingly enough PING from the host cannot see 192.168.56.1 or 101 but has no problem seeing guest 102. Guest has no problem seeing both.
VBoxPINGHost_2.png
VBoxPINGHost_2.png (13.99 KiB) Viewed 24426 times
VBoxPingGuest_2.png
VBoxPingGuest_2.png (14.63 KiB) Viewed 24426 times

And Business Intelligence Development Studio can now see the guest as well. "The Marines have landed and the situation is well in hand." Many thanks for the timely assist.

Re: Host Only Adapter stopped working

Posted: 17. Jul 2012, 18:00
by Perryg
Changing the IP address of the host to 192.168.56.1
Manually setting this on the host is not suggested as it probably will not be retained after a cold boot.

It is better to set it properly in the preference -> network section while the guest is shut down.

You might find it easier (if you can not set it properly in the preference section) to simply delete the host-only adapter in the preference section and then shut down the VirtualBox main manager, wait 20 seconds and then start the main manager, then add the host-only adapter again, which should put everything back to default. If it is working properly you should have 192.168.56.1 as the host IP and 192.168.56.101 as the guests IP.

Re: Host Only Adapter stopped working

Posted: 17. Jul 2012, 18:06
by joeller
Perryg wrote: Manually setting this on the host is not suggested as it probably will not be retained after a cold boot.

It is better to set it properly in the preference -> network section while the guest is shut down.
Sorry I did not make myself clear. I did change it in the preference\network\edit section. I will do a cold boot to verify if the setting is retained.

Update: I checked the preferences and the IP Address there had been changed back to .101. With the VM off I changed it back to .1. Then I started the VM. I checked using the report manager and it was able to successfully connect but when I checked network preferences again it had again been changed back to 101. Now I am going to try a code re-boot of the physical machine then bring it up and see what happens.

Update. I get it now. Preferences is trying to change the IP address on the host machine itself as well. And I don't have rights to do that. Everything is still working. Let me try that cold reboot and see what happens.

Re: Host Only Adapter stopped working

Posted: 17. Jul 2012, 19:25
by joeller
OK now I don't get it.
I can no longer change the settings in the VBox preferences for the IPv4 Address for the host. The connection to the guest no longer works for IE, BIDS or SQL Server Management Studio when it was doing so just fine a few minutes ago, but PING still connects to that guest from the host.
VBoxPINGHost_3.png
VBoxPINGHost_3.png (15.66 KiB) Viewed 24413 times
VBoxHostIE.png
VBoxHostIE.png (105.66 KiB) Viewed 24413 times

Re: Host Only Adapter stopped working

Posted: 17. Jul 2012, 19:35
by Perryg
Well I don't know why you are worried about the .102 address at all as it should not exist. Like I said the host will be .1 and the guest will be .101 if everything is set up properly.

Delete the host-only in the preference shut down VirtualBox and wait 20 seconds then start and create it again. Do all of this with the guest shut down and not in saved state or running.

Open the preference -> network and make sure that it matches the defaults (see screen shots above) before even worrying about starting the guest.

Re: Host Only Adapter stopped working

Posted: 17. Jul 2012, 20:23
by joeller
Windows 7 is telling me I don't have rights to delete the network adapter. I am not an administrator on this machine.

Update: I have to wait until the person with NMCI developer rights on this machine can free himself up to make these changes. :roll:
Could be this evening or could be tomorrow morning. When this happens I will advise you of the results.

I still am not clear how it was that everything was working fine before the reboot and not after the reboot even though the PING still works fine.

I am also not clear how the IP address got set to anything other than the defaults because when we created this VM, we accepted the defaults on everything because we didn't know how to do anything else. (This was first VM created after first install of VBox.)

Re: Host Only Adapter stopped working

Posted: 17. Jul 2012, 21:16
by Perryg
I previously read where you had some issues and had to recover somehow. Probably during that the defaults got changed. All I know is the defaults are what I sent you and that it would be best if you put it back like it should be. Like I said if it is not done properly it will not stick. If however your IT person has difficulty, let me know. Be sure that they have access to the screen shots I sent you!