Virtualbox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter Issue

[kauedb]

Greetings Virtualbox People,

I created 4 standard WinXP(x86) virtual machines. I am trying to run a "Selenium RC server", it's basically a http bot that is triggered by a test java client and controls a browser. Well, I needed to setup 2 virtual interfaces for each machine: 1 NAT for internet access and 1 Host-Only Ethernet Adapter (1 IP for each machine).

The first machine I built worked but the others could not be accessed. I tried to ping the machines and I realized they are available only after the 4 pings and if I ping each machine indefinitely I can access the server.

I am a network Newbie so If anyone could give me a insight I would appreciate.

Thanks in Advanced.

[BillG]

How did you create the vms? Are they clones? What IP addresses do they have? (Do ipconfig from a command prompt to get the IP). Can you ping one vm from another vm?

[kauedb]

Yes, they are clones.

IP Address: 192.168.56.101, 192.168.56.102, 192.168.56.103, 192.168.56.105

I tried to ping from one machine to another but I only got "Request timed out".

I forgot to tell you 2 things about the Host-Only config: I disabled the dhcp server and I defined static IPs for each machine.

[BillG]

If they are clones, you cannot network them. They will all have the same MAC address for their NICs. That will be why you cannot ping one from the other.

You can copy the virtual disks but you should create a new virtual machine so that each machine has a different MAC address.

[Perryg]

Don't forget to change the computer name as well on the clones. This will also cause you a lot of problems since they will all have the same name.

[kauedb]

Thank you for the replies. I tried to change the machines names but it didn't work either. I conclude that the only solution is install WinXP n times as needed. Can anyone think in something else?

[mpack]

Thank you for the replies. I tried to change the machines names but it didn't work either. I conclude that the only solution is install WinXP n times as needed.

It's rather early to draw that conclusion. There is no need to reinstall, any more than you would need to reinstall XP if you changed a NIC or computer name on a physical PC. And in any case reinstalling might leave you with the same problem if you have not fixed the config issue.

Just make sure you only run one VM at a time while reconfiguring. Go into the settings of each non-working VM's xml (the original working one can be skipped), and generate a new MAC address using the advanced pulldown of the network section - there's a little button beside the MAC address to generate a new one. Next launch the VM, go into PC properties and make sure (1) that the workgroup name is the same as the host PC, (2) the computer name is unique, i.e. different from the host PC and all other VMs.

I suggest you also restore the DHCP server and configure each guest to get an IP address automatically (I'm not sure why you disabled this).

[ChipMcK]

perhaps these will be helpful
http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29990
http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32636
http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=32604