Anyone deploy a guest directly onto the network w/VirtualBox

[billiard73]

I have read the manual numerous times and I've tried every available type of networking. If any of you VirtualBox guru's can help me solve this task I'd be eternally grateful...

I want to simply be able to create and deploy guests so that they join the network independent of my host machine. In other words, when I bring up a Microsoft Windows guest, it should behave as if I have just powered it up on the network as a separate host. If it is a static IP address, then it's static, if it's DHCP, then it will get an IP address that way.

I have given up for the time being, and that means that I'm now utilizing a "Internal Networking".
This is not really desirable, because those guests can only talk to one another, and my host cannot communicate to them without some fancy footwork with the Vboxmanage firewall rules, etc.. Which, while cool, is not something I have time to mess around with to accomplish my goals.
My only interface to/from now becomes CDROM/USB drives, or switching to NAT (patching, email, etc.) temporarily and then back to Internal networking.

Have I missed something?
Has anyone figured out how to deploy a guest directly onto the local network?

Should I just pony up the $200 for VMWare 64-bit software and be done with it? I already paid them $100 back in '99, but that doesn't run on 64-bit OS. Silly me for expecting to be more productive by buying the latest. Never works out as planned, but man do I get smarter about things I don't care about!!!

I seem to be having issues with Oracle databases and DHCP. I've never had to deal with these problems before, and it's chewing up all my time right now, thus the post.

[Sasquatch]

If you set your VM to use Host Interface Networking, you can access your network from the VM directly, and the VM will become a part of the network too (other machines can connect to it). See the manual for how to set it up. Keep in mind that if you use a wireless adapter, it probably won't work.

[billiard73]

I did this before, but didn't see that it was working correctly.
Now that I'm reading this section again, my problem was firstly that I was going too fast, and secondly that I did not create one separate host interface for EACH system.

This looks like it's going to work for me, but I may be back...

[billiard73]

I configured each of three machines to be on their own separate VirtualBox adapter, but they can't talk to one another and I can't talk to them. When I say "talk", I mean "ping".
I'm not getting it.... Reading manual for 10th time.
Any suggestions to be able to set this up correctly?

[billiard73]

Thanks Gaurav!!

http://opensourceexperiments.wordpress. ... ista-host/

This is exactly the info I needed!