this is a question specifically for this vm software but im sure that someone else can help if they have experience with other vm software

so i have all these vms running on one computer

how do i set up the network connections on the host so that they all get ip addresses from my router?

host os: windows xp sp3
guest 1: ubuntu 8.10 desktop i386
guest 2: rhel 5.2 i386

right now i have the connections that the host uses bridged with the virtual network adapters of the guests but i am ending up with an ip conflict between the host and the guests (i have the router set up to dole out ips based on the mac address)

2/7/2009 4:27:56 PM

So you have fake static IPs set by the router based on mac addresses? Bit roundabout. Why not just set static IPs?

Not sure on Virtual Box but with VMWare programs (server, workstation, etc) you want bridged. Why you are getting IP conflicts is beyond me, maybe as the router is seeing the physical mac of the host and not the virtual macs of the vms?

Id just either set static IPs on the vms themselves, or completely use DHCP. from what youve got now, you are statically assigning DHCP addresses which is kinda pointless.

2/7/2009 5:30:56 PM

check both guests to see if the have the same mac as the host

ifconfig | grep HWaddr

2/7/2009 5:51:32 PM

Quote :

"So you have fake static IPs set by the router based on mac addresses? Bit roundabout. Why not just set static IPs?"

yeah, so on all the mobile devices i dont have to constantly change settings

they dont have the same mac as the host, because i set them to FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:F1 and FF:...:F2 (in the sun vm settings window)

2/7/2009 6:24:37 PM

Quote :

"you are statically assigning DHCP addresses which is kinda pointless."

not always pointless, but in this situation, yes

if this were me, i'd stick wireshark in between the host and your router and see what MAC address is on the frames coming out of the host.

the only way you'd have ip conflicts is if they were all getting the same ip address.

2/7/2009 7:41:51 PM

when i have the vms on my laptop, its not pointless

i will sniff them out

2/7/2009 8:36:30 PM

^ so this is for when you are home? But you also use them when not at home? Then why not just either hostname reference then when you are home and use straight DHCP? You are fixing a problem by creating a problem.

As evan said, ya you can do this, but its not the best way to do it.

Are you actually getting a popup saying the ip is duplicated on the system? Or how are you determining that you have duplicate IPs?

2/7/2009 9:00:07 PM

all the work i do for my research lives in *nix, and i maintain some rhel boxes

ok fine im doing it wrong whatever

my host gives me a duplicate ip warning

when i check my router, i have two ips for one mac address

2/7/2009 9:04:30 PM

so just to verify, you have the router give specific MACs specific IP addresses via DHCP? as if not then you have some issues with dhcp on your router... and even then you have issues with it it sounds like. That or Xp doesnt like how VirtualBox bridges stuff and is picking up the traffic...

2/7/2009 9:07:18 PM

straight from the router (dd-wrt v24 sp2)

2/7/2009 9:21:26 PM

Quote :

"they dont have the same mac as the host, because i set them to FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:F1 and FF:...:F2 (in the sun vm settings window)"

but have you checked on the guests?

Quote :

"my host gives me a duplicate ip warning "

have you checked the guests to see which one has the duplicate ip address?

from the pic it doesn't look like you've assigned one to your rhel guest, not that that's an issue at this point

2/7/2009 11:32:51 PM

if you have 2 IPs for one MAC, that means virtualbox isn't properly getting the network stack in windows to spoof the MAC to match the one you set for the virtual machine.

2/8/2009 1:14:24 AM

Quote :

"Id just either set static IPs on the vms themselves, or completely use DHCP. from what youve got now, you are statically assigning DHCP addresses which is kinda pointless."

what are you talking about

static DHCP allows you to centralize nameserver specification, gateway configuration, and address allocation on your intranet without sacrificing interoperability with other networks. it definitely has a time and place, and the fact that it's not working here indicates an underlying issue rather than a need to migrate to static addressing.

2/8/2009 1:51:54 AM

^ my point is hes not using hostnames to reference the vms.

2/8/2009 9:26:13 AM

I don't know much about server virtualization, but one thing that may be causing a problem is that the MAC address you are using have the group bit set (FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:F1 ) = multicast, and sourcing an ethernet frame using a multicast address is a no-no, and generally causes problems.

That's a shot in the dark, because I don't know if normal networking rules apply in a VM environment.

2/8/2009 10:14:43 AM

Quote :

"^ my point is hes not using hostnames to reference the vms."

my point is that your comments and opinions about static DHCP have little to do with the issue he is experiencing, and there's nothing "wrong" about what he's doing. even if he assigned static addresses now and it "worked", the underlying problem will have been swept under a rug to resurface at a later time.

2/8/2009 11:46:34 AM

Quote :

"I don't know much about server virtualization, but one thing that may be causing a problem is that the MAC address you are using have the group bit set (FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:F1 ) = multicast, and sourcing an ethernet frame using a multicast address is a no-no, and generally causes problems."

i just used that as filler

so here is everything:

I have the host wireless connection bridged with the two virtual adapters

host wireless: 00:16:6F:79:8D:42
ubuntu guest in bridge: windows sees nothing on the virtual adapter, ubuntu reports 08:00:27:b4:f6:e6, which is what i set in the vm manager, ubuntu has the ip address 10.0.1.103, not 10.0.1.140 that i set

bridge in windows: 02-FF-89-B2-F7-16 and reports 10.0.1.103

windows reports that there is an ip conflict

router has two ip addresses for 00:16:6F:79:8D:42 (wireless connection), 10.0.1.120 (what i want) and 10.0.1.103

so what the hell is windows doing?

2/8/2009 1:24:27 PM

Quote :

"static DHCP allows you to centralize nameserver specification, gateway configuration, and address allocation on your intranet without sacrificing interoperability with other networks. it definitely has a time and place, and the fact that it's not working here indicates an underlying issue rather than a need to migrate to static addressing."

i already covered this, but thanks.

Quote :

"I don't know much about server virtualization, but one thing that may be causing a problem is that the MAC address you are using have the group bit set (FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:F1 ) = multicast, and sourcing an ethernet frame using a multicast address is a no-no, and generally causes problems."

yeah i just took that as filler, i assumed he put random actual MACs in
but that could definitely be causing the problem.