Issue with Server 2008R2 on Virtual Box

[Belfast_tech]

I'm hoping someone on here can give me some pointers as to where I'm making an error here!

I have Windows Server 2008R2 installed within Virtual Box. I have a clean installation of the OS & went to configure the IPv4 adapter, with the following settings:

IP address: 192.168.1.51
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
Default gateway: 192.168.1.1

Use following DNS server address:
Preferred: 192.168.1.21
Alternative: 192.168.1.22


Now - I'm actually only connected using Wifi on the actual computer itself, as opposed to being connected using ethernet cable to a LAN or whatever.

I then followed the book (Mastering Windows Server 2008R2) to go to Cmd prompt and ping 192.168.1.1 to test connectivity.

I get the response: Response from 192.168.1.1 - Destination host unreachable.

Any ideas? I've followed the book to enter the settings exactly!

Thanks in advance

 

[bremen1874]

Those settings will only work as expected if the rest of your network is configured to suit. It assumes that your gateway (router) is at 192.168.1.1 (quite possible but not guaranteed) and that you have DNS servers available at 192.168.1.21 and 192.168.1.22 (very unlikely).

How is the local physical network configured?

How are the network settings for the VM configured?

 

[J.B]

I think by default virtualbox has its NIC set to NAT.

What are you trying to do/what is your plan for the VM?

 

[Belfast_tech]

I think by default virtualbox has its NIC set to NAT.

What are you trying to do/what is your plan for the VM?

It is indeed set to NAT - what effect does that have?

I plan to install a Windows XP client & attempt to connect to the Server 2008R2 installation. I want to practice setting up group policies etc & I figured a separate installation is the way to go here?

 

[bremen1874]

If it's running NAT'd then the virtual machine will be running under a different subnet provided by VirtualBox (probably 10.0.2.0). If you want to see what's going on configure the virtual machine to use DHCP for its network settings and then look at the result using IPCONFIG. There are reasonably clear explanations of the available network options in the VirtualBox help file.

A virtual environment is a sensible way to do what you want. You may however find that you need to make allowances when you're working through the examples in your book.

The ultimate network choice will depend on how separate (or not) you want to keep the physical and virtual networks and whether you want the virtual machines to have Internet access.

 

[KIA]

Use the Internal network option unless you need access to the Internet/local LAN.

 

[J.B]

If you are setting up a couple of hosts then use internal network like KIA says, this way all the virtual machines will be able to talk to each other as if they were on their own network.

 

[Belfast_tech]

Use the Internal network option unless you need access to the Internet/local LAN.

Sorry for the complete ignorance here & thank you for your advice (and the others of course!) but how would I go about configuring Server 2008R2 for that connection?

I've inputed some settings into TCP IPv4 properties but I've still got "Destination host unreachable" - where would I get these correct settings from?

Thanks for all your help

 

[J.B]

Well the destination host will be unreachable because there is nothing there.

In you are using internal networking settings in Virtual Box then the only device on that network is the one you have just installed.

The IP address 192.168.1.1 does not exist in this network.