Host Networking sucess with vmnet1 (Vmware Host Interface)

raja_s_patil · Post by **raja_s_patil** » 16. Feb 2009, 21:16

Hello,

Today I demontrated VirtualBox to one of my friends. During this process by mistake i attached vmnet1 to VB's Host interface and found that I could access Vmware VMs, Host samba server shares and The own VB VM shares seemlessly. So a idea struck to me

If i could configure a network Interface similar to Vmware's VMnet1, configure DHCP to it I could solve my long pending issue of virtual Internal LAN of VB VMs which I plan for Software testing could be resolved.

Can somebody elaborate me how I could do this. with various command i have to use.

the ifconfig output is

Code: Select all


eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:21:70:c7:c7:35
          inet addr:192.168.1.248  Bcast:192.168.1.255
          Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::221:70ff:fec7:c735/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  
          MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:152767 errors:0 dropped:3715331736
          overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:52351 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:114054397 (108.7 MB)  TX bytes:3723064 (3.5 MB)
          Interrupt:218 Base address:0x2000

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:1324 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1324 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:84466 (82.4 KB)  TX bytes:84466 (82.4 KB)

vbox0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:ff:05:70:28:e8
          inet6 addr: fe80::2ff:5ff:fe70:28e8/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:6 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:500
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

vmnet1    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:50:56:c0:00:01
          inet addr:10.1.1.1  Bcast:10.1.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::250:56ff:fec0:1/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:3 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:263 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

vmnet8    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:50:56:c0:00:08
          inet addr:172.16.183.1  Bcast:172.16.183.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::250:56ff:fec0:8/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:24 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

and route output is

Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
172.16.183.0    *               255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 vmnet8
192.168.1.0     *               255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth0
10.1.1.0        *               255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 vmnet1
link-local      *               255.255.0.0     U     1000   0        0 eth0
default         192.168.1.1     0.0.0.0         UG    100    0        0 eth0

the vmnet1 address was 10.1.1.1, DCP was running on
10.1.1.2 and VMs were getting ips >= 10.1.1.130

Post by **TerryE** » 17. Feb 2009, 11:38

Because of various interoperation issues, parallel execution of VMware and VirtualBox is not supported (see the UG for more details), therefore I think that you are really on your own in working out how to do clever things between VBox and vmnet1.

However, if you want to solve your "long pending issue of virtual Internal LAN of VB VMs" perhaps you could explain what you mean and we could help.

raja_s_patil · Post by **raja_s_patil** » 17. Feb 2009, 17:24

Thanks Terryl

I plan to use VMs for testing of database application.

Host will act as Database server and a samba server (10.1.1.1)
On smba shares application exe and support dll will reside.

Guest 1 (XP) (10.1.1.<dhcp or fixed>
will execute exe from samba share and access database server.

Guest 2 (XP) (10.1.1.<dhcp or fixed>
will execute exe from samba share and access database server.

no of guests may increase but i think same process can
be repeated for additional guests.

I want to test concurrency and messaging between nodes which is
based on events fired on database.

The RDBMS is firebird and database will reside on Host OS secured Directory.

In later part of test I want to open VPN kind of stuff but its not
need at present and the idea is not yet consolidated.

Hope this much information is enough. Right now I have to go to my
friends place to carry these tests, he has VMware installed and this
setup is working on his machine. I want to emulate the virtual switch which is used in VMware on linux. I have demonstrated Virtual box to him, he is impressed with speed of booting and seemless mode of virtual box.

Please help me in this regard.

Post by **Sasquatch** » 19. Feb 2009, 17:25

If you want contained Host <> Guest communication, check out the VirtualBox FAQ and look for the MS Loopback Adapter. Install that, set your VMs to use Host Interface and point to the loopback. Set static addresses on all sides and you should be working.