Switching from VMware to VirtualBox-- Will this work?

Verb · Post by **Verb** » 13. Jan 2009, 15:12

Before I uninstall VMware Workstation, I need to make sure VirtualBox can replace it. I need to setup a VM as a layer 2 firewall, with another VM behind that firewall with internet access. With VMware I created a firewall with eth0 bridged (no IP), eth1 host-only (no IP), and those two NICs were bridged together in Linux, then I had eth2 bridged (192.168.1.101) for managing the firewall. Then the VM behind the firewall had one host-only NIC (192.168.1.102). That's all I had to do to get things working.

Reading the VirtualBox manual, I can't have the problems NAT creates. Is Host Interface Networking the same as VMware's bridged mode, and Internal Networking the same as VMware's host-only mode? Can I use VirtualBox to create a similar setup like I had with VMware, and if so how?

Post by **Sasquatch** » 14. Jan 2009, 23:36

HIF in VB is like VMWare's Bridged mode. You can talk to the interface you select directly. Internal Networking is for VMs only. If you select that, your VMs will be attached to a virtual switch/hub that your Host does not know about. If you want to have Guest <> Host connection, you can either use your physical NIC and set an IP outside the internet scope, or install the MS loopback adapter.

If you can't get it to work like you had it in VMWare, a diagram would help to give you more information on the setup you need.

Verb · Post by **Verb** » 15. Jan 2009, 00:31

Thanks for the reply Sasquatch! Here is a diagram of what I had in VMware.

192.168.1.103 could communicate with the Internet and vice versa. All traffic relating to 192.168.1.103 had to go through the bridge (layer 2) firewall. 192.168.1.103 was running Ubuntu Server and the firewall was running Centos with eth0 and eth1 bridged into a new interface called br0, so it was acting as a bridge/firewall.

Post by **Sasquatch** » 15. Jan 2009, 01:18

Ah, use HIF on the Guest, set it to use the NIC the Host uses for internet. Bridge it in the Guest with it's internal network that has the other Guest attached. You should be done now with the 'physical' network plan. All that's left, is the configuration.

Verb · Post by **Verb** » 15. Jan 2009, 02:08

Okay, just to make sure I understand this right... I replace the firewall's eth0 that's in "bridged" mode with HIF in VirtualBox. Then the firewall's eth1 interface that's in Host-only mode, I should instead use Internal Networking for that interface, as well as Internal Networking for 192.168.1.103's eth0 interface? If so this could be easier than I had thought.

Post by **Sasquatch** » 15. Jan 2009, 21:11

Yes, this is correct. It should work this way.

Verb · Post by **Verb** » 15. Jan 2009, 21:13

That's awesome, thanks Sasquatch!