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Hi All,

Host - OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.3
Virtualbox - 4.2.12 r84980
VM - Windows 2012 Server Standard (fresh install from media no updates applied)

I am trying to run a VM of Windows 2012 Server on a mac mini server running OS X 10.8.3 I have installed server 2012 with no problems and it appears to be running quite well apart from the networking. No matter what options I choose for the VM network settings (NAT, Bridged using Intel or even Paravirtualized using fedora project win8 drivers) I cannot seem to connect to the network properly. Server 2012 can pickup a DHCP address from the mac mini or I can fix an address either way all I can do is ping the mac mini from Server 2012 and vice versa. Server 2012 cannot ping anything else on the network, equally my laptop cannot ping Server 2012 either. However I can user remote desktop to connect to Server 2012 but only when specifying the mac mini server IP address.

This seems to me like firewalls blocking traffic or something however as far as I am concerned I have disabled the firewalls on both the mac mini server and server 2012. Am I missing something really obvious?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

"Paravirtualized" refers to the adapter type, it isn't a network mode like the other things you mentioned (NAT, bridged). Emulated or paravirtualized adapters can be used with any network mode.

I'm not sure how well NAT works with non-TCP protocols (ICMP). Normally it flags a TCP port when it expects a reply which should be reflected into the VM. Note that NATted VMs can't be directly addressed by a remote server, the only public IP address being the hosts one.

Bridged should work, firewalls permitting on servers you try to ping.

Hi thanks for your reply.

Yes setting the network mode to Bridged with either the Intel Desktop Adapter or the Paravirtualized Adapter is exactly how I was expecting to set it up. I want the Server 2012 VM to present itself on the local network to all my windows and mac clients as if it was a physical box. I simply cannot get it to ping a client on the network other than the mac mini server which is hosting the VM. And nothing but the mac mini server can see the 2012 Server VM. I cannot access the internet from the 2012 Server VM but this is obviously a symptom of the underlying issue whatever that actually is.

I think I must be missing something maybe on the mac server like the firewall is somehow still enabled and blocking traffic or something like that. It is really frustrating as it should be working! And as I said the performance seems really impressive in every other way.

From your VM, please run the following commands and attach as zip the output : And check the status of your firewall, which is enabled and set to blocking by default.

Hi, I am not onsite next until possibly Monday but more likely Wednesday next week. When I am I will post the info you requested as soon as I can. I do know however that at least from the windows vm gui I had disabled the firewalls completely.

I have done some testing at home tonight using my macbook as the host and running the latest virtualbox and additions with an eval version of windows 2012 server. This can see my network at home perfectly well setup as Bridged and using the paravirtualized adapter and fedora 64bit win8 drivers. The only difference apart from the physical network infrastructure is that my macbook is only running OS X 10.7.5 as its the most recent version apple will allow it to run. I able to get onto the internet from the 2012 server vm and download windows updates without any problems. I intend to try this onsite next week to see if when there it also can no longer see the network or internet.

This suggests to me that it is quite likely that the problem lies either with OS X 10.8.3 or the network switches on site.

Hi All,

FYI the problem I was having had nothing to do with virtualbox, windows or mac. The problem was with the cisco network switches which had been configured with incredibly high security settings which prevented the windows vm from communicating with the LAN.

Thanks