Setting Network Connections Using Oracle Virtual Box on Windows Server 2012

Connectivity: a reliable connection between two devices.

There must be both physical (electrical connection) & logical connectivity (addressing information).

We will be using the command prompt frequently. Right-click on the Windows ‘Start’ button:

We will be using the following commands: Ipconfig & ipconfig /all to report addressing information

Ping checks basic connectivity. Tracert checks connectivity through routers (traceroute Linux & Mac)

Ipconfig shows the following:

A new Virtual Box virtual machine will obtain the IP address 10.0.0.15 from an internal DHCP server
along with 255.255.255.0 as the subnet mask, 10.0.2.2 as the default gateway, 192.168.1.1. for DNS

Problem: if all VMs have the same IP address then we cannot network them!

Our first step is to configuring networking Settings.

We’ll set up our VMs to use an internal ‘switch’ and create a private network (without Internet):
 Setting Network Connections Using Oracle Virtual Box on Windows Server 2012

Or

The default setting is NAT. We will change this to Internal Network.

Next click on the small blue triangle that says Advanced

Finally choose Allow VMs and then click <OK>

 Setting Network Connections Using Oracle Virtual Box on Windows Server 2012

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Once our VMs are on the private network they will no longer get an internal DHCP IP address.

Instead they will get an APIPA address in the range of 169.254.x.y/16 as shown below:

Now we will set up an IP address on two of our virtual machine computers:

 Setting Network Connections Using Oracle Virtual Box on Windows Server 2012

Now we will set up an IP address on two of our virtual machine computers:

Remember, you have two ways of setting an IP address: Dynamically from DHCP or Static IP address

The default configuration is to get your IP address from DHCP. This is good for client computers.

For Servers and network devices we give static IP addresses.

To configure static IP addresses:

Network and Sharing in Control Panel or Right-click on the Start button, Network Connections

OR

Right-click on the Ethernet connection and choose Properties

 Setting Network Connections Using Oracle Virtual Box on Windows Server 2012

Choose Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and then click [Properties]

Above notice that both computers have been configured with different IP addresses.

Note that they have the same subnet mask, the same default gateway and the same DNS server.

and
Above we see that IPCONFIG shows us the new addresses.
 Setting Network Connections Using Oracle Virtual Box on Windows Server 2012

We have configured two devices with different addresses. Now to check connectivity we use ping.
Below we see that ping is not successful. At first, we think ‘is there connectivity?’. In this case,
Windows Server 2012 is blocking the ICMP port 7 which is used for the Echo Requests:

In Control Panel we go to the Windows Firewall and choose the Advanced settings:

On both the Inbound Rules and the Outbound Rules we choose Enable Rule and allow the
File and Printer Sharing ‘Echo Request’. The enabled ports will now appear as a Green Check Mark:
 Setting Network Connections Using Oracle Virtual Box on Windows Server 2012

Now we run the PING command and we see that our connectivity is verified:

You will need to do this on all the computers on your network. Note that some people simply turn
off the Firewall but that is not a wise thing to do. Making a port except on the Firewall is better.