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Hello! I'm having an issue with getting my Windows Server 2008 guest OS to get an IP address from the DHCP service running on my host Server 2003 machine. This particular host machine is running an active DNS/DHCP for a network of around 80 or so physical computers.

My goal with using VirtualBox is to do some testing with the Windows Deployment Toolkit on Server 2008. Unfortunately I need to be able to communicate with the other physical PCs that are on the network. If I've read the manual correctly, that means I should be choosing to use Bridged Adapter in the network settings. Unfortunately, when I do so, the guest machine does not get an IP. The guest machine's MAC address has been added to the host machine's DHCP list.

I saw this discussion (can't post URLs as new member ... VBox Forums: /viewtopic.php?f=2&t=55594), but I believe their solution was to use Host-Only Mode with DHCP disabled. Although I do have VBox's DHCP disabled for host-only mode, that's not the mode that would allow me (as far as I am aware) to become part of the already established network. As far as I am aware, what I'm trying to do is possible, right?

It could also potentially be a setting in Windows Server 2008 that is blocking me. It's a clean install with no settings applied (other than me trying to figure out the networking and allowing file sharing and network discovery).

When I'm connected via NAT I am able to get the default VBox IP and connect to the internet. Bridged mode just doesn't seem to do anything. Any suggestions?

When you use bridged mode, the guest should behave just like any machine on your LAN. If they get an IP from the LAN DHCP server, the guest should do the same. With NAT the guest gets its IP from NAT on the host.

It worries me that you are running VirtualBox on a DC/DHCP server. I would run in on one of the other LAN machines.

Host Only won't let you see the LAN machines. Host Only, as its name implies, gives you a network connection between host and guest only.

So it seems that my assumptions were correct. That means the inability for the 2008 VM to get an IP from the 2003 host is still a mystery.

I was also leery of placing VB on a DC machine, but did so very carefully - only immediately after running full backups (just in case). Unfortunately we don't have any spare PCs that could run VB on that network to test with (nor any PCs to simply install 2008 directly).

Thank you for your response and the clarification!

It appears as though the problem was due to my naïveté of working with multiple servers on the same network. I had to manually provide the IP settings for Server 2008 in order for it to properly connect to the network. Letting it automatically connect was not working. There may be a reason for this and a way of fixing it, but again... my naïveté...

Thank you again!