Virtualbox inside Windows Server 2008, running on EC2

[kevin@3gstore]

Here is a unique issue I have run into, and I have yet to find another resource on this so hopefully somebody can help me out.

Here is what I have. I am running Windows Server 2008, on Amazons EC2 (elastic computer cloud). Within that Windows Server instance, I have Virtualbox installed, with a highly specialized Linux distribution running. The only configuration options I have on the distro are for networking, by DHCP or manually enter an IP, subnet, gateway, and DNS server. The IP address points to a GUI where you can configure the rest of the distro settings.

I have set up my guest running in NAT mode for the network adapter. I then have port forwarded from the localhost of the Windows machine to the IP of the distro, and I can get to the GUI no problem. The issue I am running into is the guest doesn't look to have any outbound internet access. I was under the impression that in NAT mode for the adapter I would be able to get online. I don't know if this is a port issue, or if it has to do with Windows, or if it lies in the fact that I am running all of this within EC2.

I've seen some info that suggest the DNS settings on the guest are the trick to make this work, but what do I set them to? 8.8.8.8 doesn't appear to work, neither does the DNS that my host uses that is provided from Amazon.

I know this is a pretty unique situation but any guidance would be fantastic! Thank you all in advance!

[BillG]

I am surprised that it works at all. The EC2 is itself a virtual machine, and most virtualization software does not run well with a virtual machine as the host.

If you are running in NAT mode I would not suggest tampering with the network settings (which are supplied by the DHCP server in VirtualBox) and I doubt that any other network setting will work in that setup. If the host can access the Internet, I would expect a NAT guest to be able to as well, but I would not expect to see it work if I was looking at the guest through a port-forwarded connection. Have you tried connecting to the host by some form of remote desktop like SSH?

[kevin@3gstore]

Vmware as an example, doesn't work inside an EC2 instance since its already a Hyper-V environment. Virtualbox does run inside an EC2 instance without hiccup. Its just the routing to that guest that has me stumped. I'm beginning to think its not going to work as a similar forum post I made on the EC2 forums was met with the same concern.

Thank you very much for your answer, and if anybody else has any ideas I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

[jack.chen.toronto]

I run VB on a Windows 2008 64bit VM in a ESXi5 environment, with some tweak to enable vt-x, I can run a 64bit Linux vm inside the Windows VM.

I guess if you use natnetwork + portforwarding, it could work. Bridged network probably will not work ( by default setting, Bridged network doesn't work on ESXi environment and causing the VB host unaccessible, because ESXi virtual switch only recognize one MAC address, a workaround is to enable promiscuous mode on virtual switch/port group).

[Rishi]

Hi,
I am trying to install Virtual Box on Windows Server 2008 but as soon as I click to install network adapters, I loose connection to the EC2 instance through Remote Desktop. I have tried it twice and I see same issue every time.

Can you please let me know if you are following any specific steps to install Virtual Box on ec2 Windows Server 2008.

Thanks,
Rishi

[BillG]

That will always happen if you are connected to the host by remote desktop. There is a warning message in the VirtualBox installer that warns you that the network connection will be disrupted.


The only way that a vm can use a network is if a filter is installed so that the vm can share the host's network adapter. The network connection will always be disrupted when this occurs.

You should be able to reconnect after the filter software is installed.