virtualbox.org

Hey all,

I'm trying to set up a virtual network between 6 Fedora VM's. I've set all to Internal networking (with the default network name left in there), static IP addresses and turned off their firewalls, but they cannot ping each other. Anything else I should be doing?

Thanks,
Kevin

We need to know more about your setup.
Please send the settings information for the guests?

All servers will have ifconfig info like this:
[code]eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 08:00:27:FC:48:EE
inet addr:192.168.1.3 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::a00fefc:48ee/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:565 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:26847 (26.2 KiB)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0xd020 [/code]
but will have IP addresses from 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.7
The only VirtualBox settings I have applied are:
[list]Operating System: Linux
Version: Fedora
Network Adapter 1: Attached to: Internal Network
Internal Network Name: intnet[/list]

I have guest additions installed on all machines and IPv6 turned off on all. If there are any other settings you need please let me know.

OK a few things to remember.
If you are using internal on Linux, all machines must be logged in with the same user.

As a security measure, the Linux implementation of internal networking only allows VMs running under the same user ID to establish an internal network.

Also you will not see the host nor will the host see the guests, and there will be no communication with the Internet.

Internal Networking is similar to bridged networking in that the VM can directly communicate with the outside world. However, the "outside world" is limited to other VMs which connect to the same internal network.

I have completed the testing and it does work as as it is supposed to in a Windows Environment. I do not have enough RAM in my linux box to try this as it is already running (2) Linux Virtual Servers and I only have 1 gig of Ram in that box, but the network part should be the same with the exception of the above statement.

As an addition if you need Internet you would need to setup a second adapter and use NAT, although I have not tested this, in theory it should work.

Thanks for your reply.

To answer the first question, all 6 machines have the same user setup and the same user and root passwords, as this is only a sandbox for an upcoming live deployment.

As this is a sandbox, the internal network does not need internet access or to be able to see the host, so I'm not worried about that.

May I ask about your test? Did you use static IP addresses? Did you have IPv6 turned on? Any other settings that could cause an issue?

Thanks for your help with this.
Kevin

I used free addresses from the bank of addresses on my lan.
You could also use the VBox DHCP server (see section 8.25. VBoxManage dhcpserver of the Users Guide) to setup a few of the VM's and then see what addressing scheme that you need to use. then switch to static once you know the range.

Thanks again for your time with this. I have now changed the name of the Internal network for all machines to WNNET and run:
[code]VBoxManage dhcpserver add --netname WNNET -ip 192.168.1.1 -netmask 255.255.255.0 --lowerip 192.168.1.2 --upperip 192.168.1.255 --enable[/code]
I set the machines to DHCP and rebooted them, it's as if the network cable is disconnected. The DHCP server setup seems to have had no effect.

Still not working for me, DHCP or static.

I don't know what to tell you kevpatts. It works for me in Windows. There is not a lot written about this anywhere except the short section in the Users Guide. I don't have enough Ram in my Linux box to add more VM's. It is already running (2) Virtual Servers, but I will try to setup a couple of Linux systems in Windows box and see if it works any differently, and let you know. It may be tomorrow sometimes though, I am really busy today.

I had a few extra minutes and set up a Ubuntu Karmic Koala (test) and a Debian 5 in internal mode and they both worked fine.
I again used (2) unused ip addresses on my local lan.
I think that you must have a configuration error in the IP settings.
Maybe you should look at the ipconfig of some and see if they match as far as the network scheme.

Perryg,

I thought if the networks are running in internal mode then it doesn't matter whether or not they have the same IP addresses as devices on the LAN. They have no access to the LAN and the LAN has no access to them so why would I need to use spare IP addresses?

By the way, there's no need to set up a linux host. I'm trying to do this with a Vista host anyway.

Kevpatts

Perryg,

I got it working eventually. Setting the settings in the GUI doesn't seem to take effect. I had to do:
VBoxManage modifyvm <VM name> --intnet1 WNNET
for each machine but it's working now.

Cheers,
Kevpatts

I have been using these for a few days now and it's unbelievably frustrating using the Internal Network setting. When I shut down VirtualBox it seems to lose the settings. When I start it up again the DHCP server doesn't work and the machines can't communicate even using static IP's. I have to shut them all down and do run the command above on all 6 machines every time.