How to setup VBox network for web Windows development env

[ronald.dale]

I am network novice and am confused about how to setup the network in my VirtualBox guests.

My host computer is Windows Vista on which I have installed VirtualBox 3.0.8.

I am trying to setup a ColdFusion development environment. I have 3 guests: a Vista client with my IDE and code base, a Windows 2003 server with IIS and ColdFusion, and a Windows 2008 server with SQL Server 2008.

I need the Win 2003 server guest with IIS to use the code base on the Vista client guest. I envision mapping a virtual directory with IIS to the code base.

I also need the Win 2003 server guest with ColdFusion to be able to use the database on the Win 2008 server guest. I need to enter a path or an ip address in the ColdFusion Administrator to point to the database.

I also want each guest to be able to use my home network resources (printers).

I also want each guest to be able to browse the internet.

My research suggests that I need to create 2 network adaptors on each guest: a Host-only network (for the VBox internal network) and a Bridge network (to access the internet). I have done this and each guest is able to browse the internet. I think my internal network is working, but I do not know how to get each guest to communicate with each other. I am guessing that I need to setup static ip addresses for each guest (so they do not change after a reboot), but got lost in how to do this reading the documentation and web posts.

Suggestions on how to do this in layman terms would be much appreciated.

Thanks

[Perryg]

If you are able to use bridged then you do not need host-only.
You will need to setup static address and name resolution but that is done in each guest.
Then unless you have setup a dns server you will need to add the ip address and host name to the hosts file of each machine to be able to use friendly names.

[ronald.dale]

Thanks for the quick reply Perryg.

How do I setup a static ip address in each guest (e.g., Vista)? Also, how do I setup a DNS server in each guest?

Thanks

[Perryg]

This actually falls outside the scope of this forum.
Each guest , being Windows you just need to google setting static ip addresses in Windows. There are plenty of help pages that will show you how.

[ronald.dale]

Thanks - I found lots of links with Google on how to setup up a static ip address in Windows and how to setup up a host file in Windows.

Here is a good one on how to setup a static ip address in Windows:
http://portforward.com/networking/static-vista.htm

Here is a good one on how to setup a host file in Windows:
http://geekswithblogs.net/thibbard/arch ... Vista.aspx

[ronald.dale]

I am getting some strange behavior in getting my 3 guests to communicate wtih each other. In summary, each guest (Vista, Win Server 2k3, Win Server 2k8) has a bridge network adapter and a static ip address. I am only able to ping (using static ip addresses) between the following:
- Vista to itself and to Win Server 2k3, but not to Win Server 2k8 (request timed out)
- Win Server 2k3 only to itself and not to Vista (request timed out) nor Win Serer 2k8 (request timed out)
- Win Server 2k8 to itself and to Win Server 2k3, but not to Vista (request timed out)

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Perryg]

What is the address range of your router?
what are the addresses of the guests?

You can see these by opening a command windows and entering ipconfig /all
These should be the same with the exception of the last octet which should be unique on each machine. Example below:

Router 192.168.1.0/24 (gateway = 192.168.1.1)
Host = 192.168.1.10 subnet 255.255.255.0 gateway 192.168.1.1
guest 1 = 192.168.1.20 subnet 255.255.255.0 gateway 192.168.1.1
guest 2 = 192.168.1.30 subnet 255.255.255.0 gateway 192.168.1.1
Etc.

Also make sure that firewalls are not hampering you from connecting.

[ronald.dale]

Thanks for the great tips Perryg!

First I checked my router and discovered that it's starting ip address is 192.168.1.100 and ending ip address is 192.168.1.149. I had my guests assigned to 192.168.1.31, 192.168.1.32, and 192.168.1.33, so I changed them to 192.168.1.111, 192.168.1.112, and 192.168.1.113. Unfortunately, this did not help and I got the same ping resuls as I previously posted.

Then I checked the firewall in each guest and turned them off and sure enough each guest can now successfully ping the other 2 guests. I suppose I should turn the firewalls back on and configure them to allow specific apps to communicate between each guest. Any tips on this would be appreciated - otherwise, I'll cross that bridge later.

Thanks again!