virtualbox.org

Hi All

Been having some trouble with this one for some time now. I have set up a server in my organisation recently and it is running Server 2012 and it has a static IP assigned to it. I want to run a virtualbox VM within this machine and ideally I want this VM setup in such a way that it can talk to all other machines on our network.

I have tried bridged mode, and in this instance I end up with a 169 address (presumably because there no DHCP within the subnet I am hosting the Server on.
I have tried NAT, which gives me a 10.x.x.x address which partially works. For example I can ping other servers in our organisation using their FQDN but not using their hostname only

I have searched the internet a fair bit and haven't had much luck in finding a solution. Networks isn't my strongest skill so I may well doing this all wrong. Heres the details

Server (VM Host) uses a static IP and is configured as below. If I set the server to automatically get IP address, it comes back with nothing there I assume DHCP is not enabled on this subnet. Static works just fine, no issues.
IP 10.30.110.215
Mask 255.255.255.0
GateW 10.30.110.255

Any ideas how I can run a VM inside of the above machine but still ensure my VM can talk to all other machines in our organisation. Bearing in mind NAT does work, but only if u use the FQDN. This isn't perfect as the VM will be used for development so ideally want it to be able to pick up standard hostnames. Thanks in advance

NAT will allow your guest to see other PCs in the network, but other PCs will not see your guest.

Bridged is the way to get your guest and the whole network to see each other freely. If you do not have a DHCP server running somewhere on your network, you will need to assign a static IP address to your guest within the guest OS itself. Use the same subnet and gateway, and an IP address of 10.30.110.something-else-not-used. I think your DNS server address should also be set to your gateway, but I'm not certain on that. I do so when I set a static IP and everything seems to work. Google about for further info on what to set DNS to.

Thanks for the input Scott

Unfortunately that didn't work either. I fired up the VM in bridged mode (connected to my host NIC which is static ip based), loaded a operating system, set a static ip on my VM (10.30.110.216) and it wouldn't pickup anything on the network. I basically copied over all the settings from my Host machine ensuring default gateway, dns etc etc are all set correctly. The only thing that I changed was the IP address of course. Definitely not a address in use either.

I can add a 2nd NIC to my Host if that'll help in anyway. I was thinking add a 2nd NIC, then somehow create a bridge between the VM adaptor and my 2nd NIC, then set the 2nd NIC to static so it can talk to my whole network. I did play around with this but didn't have much luck. Though I may have just been doing it wrong.

Adding a second NIC should not be necessary. That config should work and works fine for me.

Have you talked to the person responsible for the network? Perhaps they have network security set up to prevent more than one IP per port. If that is the case you will need two NICs in the host and two network cables to different switch ports.