How do I setup a linux server network on a virtual machine?

Question

I want to setup a Linux server and client network on virtual machines on my Windows 7 laptop, so that I can learn about Linux server system.

The setup will be one VM as Ubuntu server and 2 VMs as client machines.

How can I go about doing this with VirtualBox?

Answer 1

Go to Settings for a selected machine, select Network and choose Internal Network then choose a name for your internal network (for example inet). make sure that you choose the same name internal network name for both VMs. That setup will allow you to confine both machines to a virtual network without access to the network to which your laptop is connected. Good for isolation, bad for VM updates. Then again if you need updates you can just assign each machine an additional virtual network card in bridged or natted mode.

Answer 2

Just add a host only NIC to each VM and they will be on the same flat network by default.

Answer 3

I would suggest that you assign all your VMs to a single virtual interface that provides NAT via the host. That will allow your virtual machines to interact with each other and your workstation like a 'real' network and concurrently allow them out to the internet for retrieving updates, software packages, etc.

Answer 4

I'm doing this right now, but I had way less trouble setting the VMs as 'bridged network adapter'.