virtualbox.org

Hi All,

I'm trying to create an Active directory and DNS server. I have created 2 Windows 2K3 Server and 1 Windows XP client as guest OS. Now the problem is I don't know how to connect them. I read somewhere in the forum to use NAT and it will act as the router but I can't seem to ping the other guest OS. I am using only 1 computer and a wired connection directly to the internet.

Can anybody direct me on how to go about in creating this mini-network? I am trying to learn about AD. What I would like to do is to connect the 2 servers and client OS then my host OS will act as the gateway to the internet.

Thanks.

What you are intending to do would be better used with a Bridged connection, but that requires a router.
If you don't have a router then host-only with a second adapter using NAT to get to the Internet would be my second choice.

Thanks. I try to see if I would be able to accomplish this.

As Perryg pointed out, AD does not work well with NAT. AD members need to use the local DNS, not the DNS at your ISP.

I have my domain running on an internal network not linked to the host or the physical network. That way your domain does not interfere with machines on the physical network or vice versa. You can even run DHCP without affecting other machines.

If you want Internet access, you can run a router in a vm, using Windows server or Linux (one NIC linked to the physical network ie bridged, the other in the private virtual network). You can run it as a NAT router as long as you disable the DHCP and DNS forwarding options. The router simply does NAT, your DC does DNS and DHCP. You need to set your local DNS to forward to a public DNS to resolve public URLs. All AD machines use the DC IP address only for DNS, no secondary addresses.

Here is a diagram of my AD setup.
Internet
|
Netgear ADSL
192.168.0.1
|
LAN machines (workgroup)
192.168.0.x dg 192.168.0.1
|
192.168.0.99 dg 192.168.0.1
vm NAT router
192.168.21.254 dg blank
|
DC
192.168.21.11 dg 192.168.21.254
|
other AD machines
192.168.21.x dg 192.168.21.254
dns 192.168.21.11

The problem with having the host directly connected to the Internet is that you need address translation on the host (to link the private AD subnet to the host's public IP). The Windows OS only has ICS (only Windows Server OS has routing built in), and this doesn't work well with AD because you cannot disable the DNS and DHCP functions in ICS. You would need to manually configure the private network machines to use the DC for DNS but use ICS for address translation.

This really is not a VirtualBox limitation. You would have the same problem with other virtualization products or even with physical machines plugged into a switch. The limitation is ICS. You could try using a third party NAT/proxy product like WinGate to route through the host if you want to use DHCP in the private network.

www.wingate.com