Virtual Box Host Networking in Windows
I was recently asked by a customer if you can do Host Networking in Virtual box with Windows. I know the answer is yes, but I had never actually done it myself. I told the customer yes, and then headed to my lab to verify the steps.
The virtual box documentation is some of the best documentation that I have read. That being said, it gives a brief paragraph on how to make this work in windows. Quite frankly now that I have gotten it working, the paragraph is crystal clear, but before I figured it out, the directions where of no help. Could be my user error, but since I could not find any other documentation on how to do it, I decided to blog about it.
On your host OS, in my case this is windows 2003 server, you need to navigate to your network settings. Here is a snapshot of what mine looks like.
Next you need to start virtual box, create a virtual machine, and create a new host interface. This is all well documented in the directions. I created one called VirtualBox Host Interface 1. I have attached a screen shot for reference.
At this point your windows networking will have a new interface in it.
Now here comes the part that I missed from the documentation. You need to select both your original ethernet connection and the new connection you just made, and then right click and select bridge. You are going to want to make sure you do this step from the console. You will loose network connectivity to the host when you do this.
Once you select bridge, a wizard will run, and create a new bridge connection. You will need to select this new bridge connection and put the network settings you originally had in your ethernet connection into it. This is why you must do it from the console and why you will loose connectivity to the host. Notice how the network control panel now displays a Network Bridge section.
We can now start our virtual machine and it will come up with a host interface and an IP on the local network.
And then the million dollar question. Can you do multiple? You can. Simple repeat the steps to create another Virtual adapter, I have named mine VirtualBox Host Interface 2. In your network settings, right click on it and select add to bridge.