Creating a Workgroup of computers using Virtual Box

[CS75]

Hi Guys

Just after a bit of advice before I start trying to do this in case it cant be done or if there is any tips for doing it.

I Have 5 Windows 7 computers and are connected to a switch and have Internet access and not setup to network to each other in anyway.

What I want to achieve is for each of these PCs to have Virtual Box installed and create a Workgroup within Virtual Box so that they can share files etc using Virtual Box and not the host computer? So basically the whole environment is run through Virtual Box, I hope that makes sense?

Any hints and tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

[scottgus1]

Without adding network cards to your PCs I'd say No. The host PCs must be networked for the guest PCs to be networked.

If you want to add network cards to your hosts you can set up a separate private network and switch that the guests could use.

[CS75]

Apologies for not making clearer, all of the PCs have network cards and VB can see the network cards too, they are all connected to the same switch and all receive internet access too, I would be able to set the IP's to a range like 192.168.0.1 - 192.168.0.x so they would be able to communicate. What I am asking is what option do I set the network card in VB and are there any other things to change so they all see each other on the workgroup, I'm just trying to gather information before starting and having to start again from scratch if I make any errors, I hope this makes the scenario clearer?

[scottgus1]

5 Windows 7 computers . . . connected to a switch and have Internet access and not setup to network to each other in anyway . . . have Virtual Box installed and create a Workgroup within Virtual Box so that they can share files etc using Virtual Box and not the host computer?

This misled me to believe you wanted just the guests networked, not the hosts.

If you wish to include the guests on the host's network, set the guests' Virtualbox networking style to Bridged. The guests will look to the network just like more PCs.

[CS75]

Thanks again for getting back to me and again apologies for not being clearer, what I really wanted is for the hosts to stay as stand alone PCs and use Virtual Box guests to be on a workgroup so what I would have is -

5 Windows 7 PCs all with Virtual Box running Windows 7 as guests and its the Virtual Box guests that I want to talk to eachother - I hope this makes sense - I've actually started to confuse myself lol

[scottgus1]

OK, I would think, then, that you would make one of those Homegroup things that Windows 7 has, in one guest, then attach only the other guests to the Homegroup.

You could also try the tunneling network in Virtualbox (see section 6.8 in the manual). They might do what you want, but I've never tried them. I don't know if the system allows more than two such interconnected guests.

[CS75]

Thank you I will give it a try and see how it goes in the morning, fingers crossed it works, thanks again.

[CS75]

Ok sorry guys I need a little more help on this if possible.

I have loaded up my VM and I'm unsure which setting to choose from the drop down list in Network Settings - I have chosen Bridged Adapter and that lets me use the VM as normal with Internet access etc... So, I have set my second and third PC etc... With the same settings, after doing this I checked the IP Address of these to see if I could ping them for a start and they all have the same IP Address. Is this normal?

On PC 1 the host IP Address is 192.168.102.102 and the VM is 192.168.102.103
On PC 2 the host IP Address is 192.168.102.108 and the VM is 192.168.102.103
On PC 2 the host IP Address is 192.168.102.106 and the VM is 192.168.102.103

And so on...

I would expect for them to receive a different IP Address?

Is there something that I have doe wrong or maybe need to change? If I try and Ping one of the host PCs with the VM running I am unable to, but if I shut down the VM then I can ping one of the other hosts and it reply's, so I'm assuming if I can somehow get these VM's to receive different IP's I may be on the way to get this working?

Thanks in advance for any further help and suggestions.

** Update** just to update on this - I noticed the VMs had the same MAC Address! I have refreshed them and they are now receiving different MAC Addresses and they are now receiving different IPs too! So I have managed to move forward on that part. I still can't ping a VM from within a VM but I can ping one of the PCs not running a VM so maybe I shouldn't have set the VM to Bridged Adapter in the Network Setting? Or maybe its the tunneling option which after looking in the manual I am confused... sorry.

[scottgus1]

Did you copy one guest onto the other hosts? That would account for the same MAC addresses. DHCP would probably give the same IP address, I think, based on the same MACs.

Ping is turned off by default in Windows OS's. Did you turn on Ping responses in the guests? See the Windows firewall.

Bridged will put your guests on the same network as the hosts, and the guests receive IP addresses from the DHCP server in the router existing in the host's network. I use Bridged all the time at work without problems, and ping works all the time, after I turn on ping in the guest OS's.

Did you turn on the tunneling option in the manual?

[CS75]

Thanks for your reply Scott, I have just been trying some things and resetting the MAC address allowed DHCP to assign alternative IP's which is great! I've left the adapter set to bridged and I have renamed all of the PCs as yes I copied them to each PC and they now have unique names and I have created a local workgroup. Withing network places they can see each other - I now just need to assign some permissions to allow access to the areas, or at least I'm hoping that is the next stage, thanks for all of your help and suggestions.

[CS75]

Just to update - All is sorted and working great - Scott thanks for all of your help and suggestions you have helped me resolve this thank you so much!

[scottgus1]

Glad it's working!