virtualbox.org

Hello,

I have a setup that might be totally inefficient or unique in someway. Here is a rough diagram of how my virtual network setup looks like.





*all servers are running Ubuntu server 7.10

The Ubuntu Physical box has to eth ports:
eth0: 192.168.0.15
eth1: OUTSIDE WORLD IP


on the Ubuntu physical box (Host box) it runs these virtual servers:
1.) Smoothwall server ( which handles the income traffic from the outside world ip.

2.) the apache web server box (192.168.10.22)

3.) the mysql db server box (192.168.10.23)

4.) the mail server box (192.168.10.24)


here is what the network setup on the host box looks like:

eth0 -> 192.168.0.15
eth1 -> outside world ip
tap0 -> 192.168.10.22
tap1 -> 192.168.10.23
tap2 -> 192.168.10.24
tap3 -> other random server
tap4 -> 192.168.10.1 (smoothwall green interface)
tap5 -> outside world ip (smoothwall red interface)

br0 -> 192.168.0.15 ( eth0, tap3)
br1 -> outside world ip (eth1, tap5)
br2 -> 192.168.10.15 (tap4, tap2, tap1, tap0)



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now the problem.... Everything runs just fine, all the *.*.10.* servers communicate with each other just fine.

all the website hosted on the apache box run and work just great.

all the port forwarding is configured correctly to my knowledge.

the problem is this:

every once in a while when trying to connect to a website hosted on the 192.168.10.22 box you will get "connection refused" it seems to be random. Nothing in the logs tells me why the connection has been refused. smoothwall is forwarding all the correct ports for web access.
after awhile the connection is allowed through again.

If I get on the host box and ping a website it seems to "wake something up" and then I can then get to my website right then.

also when I notice the website it not accessible ( I say not accessible because it is still running correctly on the apache box, it's just denying me from connecting to it through my web browser) I attempt to winscp into the box where I get the message "connection refused" even though I have it setup to forward me. verily, all boxes on the *.*.10.* network return connection refused.... but as soon as it loads the website all the boxes are then "winscpable" into.

in the smoothwall firewall log it shows that it refused a user on port 80, but it should not do this.

the question at hand is why is it randomly refusing these connections?

it it just the smoothwall virtual box that is causing these problems? (note: smoothwall is up todate.)

or is it my interfaces setup on my host box the is sometimes causing these random connection refusals?


and suggestions would be much appreciated.

Does you Smoothwall have a (D)DoS log? If so, it might block abusive requests to port 80 for a limited time. Interfaces that are part of a bridge should not have an IP address assigned to them too, so remove that too (if you haven't done so already). For the Virtual machines, it means that the TAP interface itself does not get an IP address on the Host side, but of course does on the Guest side. I assume you have this set properly.