Accessing your Virtualbox Guest from your Host OS

As a developer you want to ping and access the webserver on your virtual machine. This is a very simple solution to enable the bridge to the guest VM.

Requirements

• VirtualBox (latest version)
• A guest operation system (e.g. Ubuntu)

Setup

• Shut down all running VM's
• Right click on the VM > Change... > Network
• Open Tab: Adapter 1
• Enable the Adapter and select "NAT"

The next step is importand to make it work:

• Open Tab: Adapter 2
• Enable the adapter and select: "Host-only Adapter"
• Select Name: "VirtualBox Host-only Ethernet Adapter"
• Click at "Extended"
• Select the adapter: "Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop..."
• Select the modus: "Allow all and host"
• Click on "Ok" to save all settings.

Yes, you have to enable two adapters at the same time to make it work. Realy. You need a "NAT" and a "Host-only Adapter".

• Start the VM
• Open the terminal (with Ctrl+Alt+T)
• Enter: ifconfig
• Now you should see a local IP addresse like: 192.168.56.104
• The IP address is dynamic an can be different on your VM

Test

• Go back into your host machine
• Open the command line: cmd
• Ping the guest VM with the command: ping 192.168.56.104
• You should see the ping response
• If you have a webserver installed on the guest VM then open http://192.168.56.104 in your browser to the hosted website.