SOLVED VirtualBox IP addresses

[adrianwi]

Not sure anyone will be able to help with my limited network knowledge, but something was working yesterday and it's not today!

I'm using a VirtualBox jail have have various VM's set-up. The main one I use is Windows 10 running a Glassfish server and MSSQL database. I have this set-up with a bridged network and assigned epair2b as I have port forwarding setup on my firewall so I can access the java application externally.

I've been playing around with Zimbra in another VM, and finally got it all configured yesterday. This is running in a ubuntu VM and yesterday I was able create a bridged network and assign a different epair4b.

Both were running and I could access both VMs and their applications.

I had to restart FreeNAS to replace a drive and when I've rebooted and restarted the VirtualBox console, I can only see epair2b and they don't like sharing the same one!

Any ideas how I get the second one back so they can both have a epair?

Sorry for the non-techie explanation and I really need to get around to reading the Networking books I bought :D

 

[adrianwi]

Not solved in the sense I have 2 addresses I can bridge to in my VirtualBox jail, but I got around it by creating a 2nd VirtualBox jail and creating a mount point to the VMs in my other jail and opening up the ubuntu/zimbra one in there. Now both are happily running together with their own IP addresses :D

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I read your OP and self-response, and I'm still puzzled. All my VMs use bridged mode networking and I've never needed to add another jail to make it work. The VMs get their addresses by DHCP and announce them via ZeroConf, aka Bonjour. The phpVirtualBox jail has its own, static IP address, outside the DHCP range.

My guess is you had an IP clash that's being masked by the addition of a 2nd phpVirtualBox jail.

 

[eldo]

Robert,

I had a similar, but different, issue in my installation of vbox. After an extended opwer outtage, the epair assigned to the vm was no longer available and the vm wouldn't start until I assinged it a different epair. Luckily for me, I only had one host and only needed the one epair that was available for use. I was using a bridged network configuration in the vm as well.

 

[adrianwi]

Don't think I've done anything, but thought I'd have a look at the new UI in FreeNAS 10 so fired up a VM I'd created in my VirtualBox jail and there was another epair interface to use so I didn't have to stop the Windows 10 VM. Strange.

Actually creating another VirtualBox jail and creating a mount point to the other VirtualBox VM's seems like a good workaround if you have a similar problem.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

there was another epair interface to use so I didn't have to stop the Windows 10 VM

All my VMs share one epair. There's no need to stop one to start another.

the epair assigned to the vm was no longer available and the vm wouldn't start until I assinged it a different epair.

This is a problem that requires manual intervention. It used to happen a lot (as much as once per reboot), because the sequence of jails claiming epairs was unpredictable, but I believe a fix was introduced a while back such that it's only likely if jails are added or removed.

 

[eldo]

This is a problem that requires manual intervention. It used to happen a lot (as much as once per reboot), because the sequence of jails claiming epairs was unpredictable, but I believe a fix was introduced a while back such that it's only likely if jails are added or removed.

Oh, that's great to know, thanks.