How can I access apache (on virtualbox guest) from host?

Query

Hi I installed Apache on Ubuntu in a Virtualbox. When I go into the guest and load up Firefox I can see that Apache is working fine when I browse to https://www.robin.eu.org.

I would like to access this same page through the host now. I’ve tried using the IP address of the guest but nothing comes up. Ideally I will set up my Win7(host) hosts file to send request to http://guestserver.com to the apache server on the guest. How can I do this? Thanks

Resolution

If you need to allow other machines in your physical network reach your VM or if the VM needs Internet access, use bridged networking. Otherwise, stick to host-only networking.

1. Stop your VM and open the settings for it in the VirtualBox (OSE) Manager
2. Go to the Network tab

3. Select the network mode at your choice (bridged networking or host-only) (in the below example, I’m using host-only)

   If you want to use bridged networking, you’ve to select the right network adapter at Name. For wired connections, you’d select something named like eth0. Wireless connections are usually named wlan0(the numbers may vary)

4. Save the settings
5. Start the Ubuntu VM

6. When up, you can gather the IP address by running:

   ipconfig | config addr
   

   In the below output, 192.168.56.101 is the IP address that can be used in your Win7 host system to access your VM:

   eth0  Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 08:00:27:70:27:fe  
         inet addr:192.168.56.101  Bcast:192.168.56.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
         inet6 addr: fe80::a00:27ff:fe7b:25fe/64 Scope:Link
         inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
         inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
   

7. In your windows host system, edit C:\Windows\drivers\etc\hosts as administrator and add a line:

   192.168.56.101 guestserver.com If you’ve a Ubuntu host system, edit /etc/hosts using sudo nano /etc/hosts

8. Profit!