virtualbox.org

Hi!

We are running VirtualBox on a Mac OS X 10.6.4 Server with enabled DNS service. The guest system (Windows XP Pro with one bridged ethernet adapter) is running in headless mode and -- so far -- working well.

But when the VM is running, we noticed that the DNS server service on the host is not working properly any more. Some internet addresses (and a growing number) are not resolved any more, some others are. As I can see, the local DNS resolution is not affected, it's only "internet" addresses for which our DNS server acts as a relay. Stopping and restarting the DNS service on the Mac OS X Server temporarily solves the problem (btw, the named.log does not show any problems, even it it is switched to debug mode ...), but it reoccurs usually within a few hours.

After disabling the VM (stopping the vboxheadless service), the DNS is instantly working well again, so I conclude it's VirtualBox. Does anyone know this issue or know where I can adjust someting? I am new to VirtualBox and did not find anything in the documentation or the forums yet ...

Thank you in advance,
Ron.

Is there any need to have the VM run with Bridged networking? If there isn't, set it to use NAT instead and see if the problem still occurs. When the problem no longer happens, you can stick to using NAT. The only difference is that the VM is no longer directly accessible from the network.

Other than above, you might want to check the IP configuration on both systems.

Dear Sasquatch,

thank you very much for your answer. Unfortunately, using NAT is no alternative as I want the VM to be accessible from the network and it should behave like a „normal“ network computer. But obviously, there is a problem when both the Guest and the Host are using the same physical network adapter and DNS server is active on this adapter as well.

The Guest OS is behaving as an individual machine, so it gets a dynamic IP (different from the server's IP) from the DHCP server (which is a different device on the network) and it gets correct network settings. But maybe the problem is that the Guest system also uses the DNS server on the Host (as this is set by the DHCP server)? I will change the Guest's DNS settings accordingly to see if this is the problem and report again.

Kind regards,
Ron.