Question

My work environment consists of 2 physical machines (W1 and W2). One is an IIS server, the other has SQL Server 2005.

I want to replicate the environment on my Windows 7 laptop using virtual PC. I want something like this:

Host laptop: Windows 7 VM1: Windows 2003 with Visual Studio 2008 and IIS VM2: Windows 2003 with SQL Server 2005

How do I setup the networking on each VM? Internal, Shared NAT, loopback adaptor?

If I use the Microsoft Loopback adapter for both VMs, will I still be able to access the outside work environment from VM1? I cannot bind both virtual machines to the host physical NIC because of computer naming conflicts with my work environment.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Virtualisation software such as virtual PC normally does all this for you. Your machines should all be setup on a private virtual network inside virtual PC, and they can be NAT'd so that they can access out without having to actually be on the network themselves.

So I think Shared NAT is the answer you are looking for.

Answer 2

I have a similar setup for software testing. Internal is my preference only if the VMs don't need to access the internet. For your situation I would suggest looking here: http://www.tipandtrick.net/2008/fix-virtual-pc-2007-shared-networking-nat-internet-not-working-in-windows-server-2003-2008-and-vista-guest-os/ I have never had the problem you are describing but the suggestion on this site seems sound. The loopback adapter is not what you want - I have only used the loopback for situations where the host is not connected to a network but this article describes a more complex NAT setup: http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual%5Fpc%5Fguy/archive/2005/10/04/477195.aspx Hope these help.