virtualbox.org

Hosts: Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Guests:
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Windows XP Professional

On the Hosts:
V:\VirtualBox\Shared
V:\VirtualBox\Users
V:\VirtualBox\<all of the VirtualBox folders (i.e. Machines, Drives, etc.)

Periodically the contents of the V:\VirtualBox folder (and sub folders) is copied to a different host.

I need to make the Shared and Users folders available to the guests. If I used a Bridged network and Windows networking the VMs' mappings to the folders have to be redone because the hosts have different names. For example, if the copy is done from Host1 to Host2 the mapping for the S: drive has to change from \\Host1\Shared to \\Host2\Shared.

I tried to use VirtualBox's shared folders as the S: drive would be mapped as \\VBOXSVR\Shared which doesn't change if everything is on a different host. Unfortunately, VirtualBox's shared folders does not NTFS security and Microsof Office 2010 has problems wiith it.

Can I do what I need to do using Host Only Networking? I tried setting it up but had to disable the Brigded adapter on the VM and then could only share a folder from within the VM. I could not find a way, from the host side, to expose V:\VirtualBox\Shared as a shared folder in the Host Only network.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

From a sharing point of view, there wouldn't be any big difference from a host-only or a bridged mode. Both will use an interface in the host and the guest, and in both case you would use the IP address of each.
Could you show the VM config (run this in install dir and replace VmName) in host-only as well as the network config : Also show the network config in the guest

I found part of the problem. Windows could not identify the network and labeled it as Unknown Network. It gets set as a public network and you can't see any of the machines on it.

I hack around for a while and manged to change it to private by telling the system that all unknown networks were private. (This is not something I would want to run with.) But when I did that the IP addresses got fouled up and I had to use static addreses. That worked until I rebooted. Then I could not get it working again and managed to get one test VM so fouled up it wouldn't even work with a bridged adapter -- restored it from a back up.

Is there some way to get Windows running in a VM to identify the host only network. Any name will do as I can then set the system to treat that name as private if necessary.

When I get some time I will play with it again and see what combination gets it working again.

It took me a while to find the answer as well, so here you go. The idea is to add a gateway to your network configuration.

Open Network and Sharing Center -> Change adapter settings -> (Select your HostOnly network adapter) -> Properties -> Properties for IPv4 -> Advanced... -> Default Gateways.

Add your default gateway, based on your host-only network.

Verify with "ipconfig" in the command prompt. Reboot, and your network should be identifiable...

Host: Windows 7 Ultimate x64 with all patches
VirtualBox 4.3.4

Cannot get this working

On the host:
VirtualBox GUI
File
Preferences
Networking
NAT Networks
<nothing>
Host-only Networks
VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
Adapter
IPv4 Address: 192.168.234.100
IPv4 Network Mask: 255.255.255.0

Control Panel
Network and Internet
Network Connections
Local Area Connection 3
Unidentified network
VirtualBox Host-Only Ehernet Adapter

Right click on Local Area Connection 3
Properties <answer UAC prompt>
Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)
Properties
Use the following IP Address (checked)
IP address: 192.168.234.100
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.234.1
Click on OK
Click on Close
Unidentified network ==> Unidentified network Identifying for a few seconds then goes back to just Unidentified network

Ipconfig
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 3:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 08-00-27-00-30-F3
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80:e879:5a7c:6dc6%26(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.234.100(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
192.168.234.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 436731943
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-16-6D-92-3B-00-26-2D-F3-E9-82

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Reboot and Local Area Connection 3 is still unidentified and still public.

Only other enabled adapter is hardware NIC.

OK, I'm a little bit confused. Or you . Did you do all of the changes on the host? Because the instructions I gave in my previous post apply to the guest.

Right now I have the same problem on both. If you can please provide an example of both the host definition (VirtualBox and Windows) and the guest definition (VirtualBox and Windows).

By the way, where does VirtualBox store the IP address and file mask on the host for Virtual Host-only Networking. The only entry I can find in the VirtualBox.xml file is for the DHCP server and it has all zeros (which is reasonable since I unchecked the enable DHCP box).

The unidentified network is a Windows thing unrelated to VirtualBox. From Vista on, by default unidentified networks are set to public and file sharing is blocked. As socratis noted, if you don't have a default gateway configured Windows will mark it unidentified and therefore public.

You can make sure that it has a default gateway so that it is not marked unidentified, or you can change the local security policy in the Windows guest so that it does not make it public even if it is unidentified.

If you let the guest host only adapter get its IP from DHCP, it will get a default gateway automatically from the host only network DHCP server (and it should always be the same, even when you move the host to a different network).

BillG wrote:If you let the guest host only adapter get its IP from DHCP, it will get a default gateway automatically from the host only network DHCP server (and it should always be the same, even when you move the host to a different network).

No, it will not. That's why this workaround is needed. The HostOnly DHCP server of VBox does not provide a default gateway, hence the problem. I complained about it, but I was told that it is not a VBox issue, it's a Microsoft issue. Go figure...

Please provide an example of the host and VM settings both for VirtualBox and for Windows.

There is no special settings, either on the host or on the guest, except what I said several posts earlier where you simply add the missing gateway to the guest. See my post for the details.

>Add your default gateway, based on your host-only network

At this point the host cannot see the network because it is listed as an unknown network and marked as public. I tried adding a gateway setting to the host but it still comes up as unknown. So how did you get the host the see the network?

Doesn't the host have to be able to see the Host-only network?

You are having a problem with the host. I was talking about the guest. I don't have a Windows host, so I don't know how they react.

Broken link removed.

The solution given is to set the gateway to another active host on the subnet. This is a Host-only Network with only one host. There isn't another active host on the subnet.