Name Resolution of Guest Hostnames

[dbalencar]

Hi, lads!

Please forgive me if this is silly, but I couldn't find an answer.
I've installed PCF-DEV on my laptop (Windows Host). It creates a guest VM (Linux VM).
What is curious to me is that after installing this application I'm able to resolve from the windows host these hostnames to the VM: api.local.pcfdev.io and apps.local.pcfdev.io
What kind of Voodoo is it? Magic? I've checked the hosts file and found nothing...

How is this accomplished, please?

Cheers,
Doug.

[dbalencar]

Is this something like nip.io??? Or is it a VirtualBox feature? If so, is there a documentation about it?

[socratis]

• What is the question?
• What is the VirtualBox related question?
• What is PCF-DEV?
• Does it use VirtualBox, hence the connection?
• Shouldn't you be asking at PCF-DEV?

[dbalencar]

Ok, sorry, so I'll try again!

PCF-DEV is a Pivotal Cloud Foundry plugin for the CLI.
It creates a VM in VirtualBox with Pivotal Clound Foundry installed (for development), with 2 net adapters (NAT and Host-Only).

This VirtualBox guest machine is running Linux on a Windows host.
There are two APIs defined, which are available from a browser running on the host machine.

So, if I open Chrome on my host machine and type the API address a page opens, serving that page from the guest machine.
If I ping both APIs from the host, they resolve to the guest VM in VirtualBox (Adapter IP from Host-Only Network).

How does this naming resolution happen? In the host machine, there are no entries in the hosts file.
The DNS used by both the host and shared by the guest is my wifi router...

I would like to know if VirtualBox has some feature for defining this kind of name resolutions that I might have missed, and how it works (documentation link).

Cheers,
Doug

[socratis]

There are two APIs defined, which are available from a browser running on the host machine.

I don't think that you refer to VirtualBox anymore...

How does this naming resolution happen? In the host machine, there are no entries in the hosts file.

Again, not a VirtualBox question.

Let me put it like that. VirtualBox provides the hardware part (with some minor software additions). Would you call Acer/Apple/Dell/HP with such a question? Or the one that provided the VM for you? I think that you should talk to the PCF-DEV people, whoever they are...

[BillG]

The only thing of interest (from a VirtualBox point of view) is that it has a host only adapter. In other words the host and guest have a network connection.. That probably explains how they resolve names and communicate.

[socratis]

It could be zeroconf/avahi for all I know... But still, not something VirtualBox related.