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I'm trying to set up a small virtual lab consisting of both vmware and virtualbox guests, and can't connect from/to the vmware guests.

  • The virtualbox guests are using the host-only network adapter, and get IPs in 192.168.56.0/24 via DHCP.
  • The vmware guests are using bridged network connection (bridged to virtualbox host only adapter), and get IPs in 192.168.56.0/24 via DHCP.

The following connections are working:

  • Host <-> virtualbox guests
  • virtualbox guests <-> virtualbox guests
  • vmware guests <-> vmware guests

If I run tshark on the vb guests, I can see broadcast traffic from the vmware guests, however no direct connections are working. Using netdiscover/arp on the vb guests, I can see entries for all guests. On the vmware guests however, most arp entries show (incomplete)

arp entries on the vmware guest: arp entries on the vmware guest

Any idea why direct connections from/to the vmware guests are not working? I'm using VirtualBox 5.1.8 and VMWare Player 12.5.1

Edit: This is the guide I followed when setting up the network: How to Setup Network Between VirtualBox and VMware Virtual Machines.

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  • Questions: (1) Are all firewalls off? (2) What happens when all VMs are set to use directly the physical adapter? (3) Have you tried static IP addresses ?
    – harrymc
    Commented Feb 8, 2017 at 18:34
  • So do you need to get this to work then Host <-> vmware guests? It could be virtualbox guests <-> vmware guests? Let's ensure it's clear what you're trying to accomplish here that you cannot please. You give the examples of what is working but no example in this same context to show what you'd like to work which is not... I know you say "can't connect from/to the vmware guests" but that's kind of vague. It's hard to stop @twobeers though man!!
    – Vomit IT - Chunky Mess Style
    Commented Feb 8, 2017 at 21:45
  • @Walmart I want to be able to make the following connections: virtualbox guests <-> vmware guests and optionally also host <-> vmware guests
    – twobeers
    Commented Feb 9, 2017 at 7:10
  • @harrymc (1) yes all firewalls are off (2) I want the VMs to be isolated from the physical network, so I won't attach them directly (3) yes I did, no change with static addresses
    – twobeers
    Commented Feb 10, 2017 at 9:41
  • I'm starting to think that VMWare & VB cannot connect their adapters so you need to use a 3rd party. For example use Hamachi to setup a private VPN for the VMs.
    – harrymc
    Commented Feb 11, 2017 at 18:03

2 Answers 2

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Change your Virtualbox guests to use bridge networking. That way everything will be on the same LAN.

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  • They are already on the same LAN, using the virtual network adapter "virtual box host-only network", with direct connection to this network for the virtual box vms, and bridged connection to this network for the vmware vms.
    – twobeers
    Commented Feb 5, 2017 at 22:03
  • Just so I understand correctly, are you running Virtualbox and VMware together on the same host? If so, why? Why not just use one hypervisor for all guests?
    – Charles Burge
    Commented Feb 8, 2017 at 0:00
  • I'm running VirtualBox and VMWare on the same physical host (Windows 7). I'm using preconfigured VMs from different sources, therefore the need for two different hypervisors. According to the guide I linked in my question, it should be possible to set up networking between these two.
    – twobeers
    Commented Feb 8, 2017 at 7:36
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    @twobeers No, your machines are not on the same network: you are only (wrongly!) dishing out IP addresses from the same subnet, that's all. Just check your routing table to see the mess you created: how can your kernel decide thru which interface to route packets for, say, 192.168.56.103? That of Virtualboxo or that of VMWare? Charles Burge's suggestion works perfectly well. +1 from me.
    – MariusMatutiae
    Commented Feb 12, 2017 at 17:03
  • @MariusMatutiae In the most simple setup, I have 1 virtual box vm, only attached to the VB HostOnly adapter, and 1 VMWare VM, bridged to the VB HostOnly adapter. Both get IPs via dhcp in the same /24 range. On the virtual box vm, I can see the broadcast traffic (dhcp, arp) from the vmware VM, is this possible if they not on the same lan? the routing table has only 1 entry, dst:192.168.56.0 gw:0.0.0.0 iface:eth0
    – twobeers
    Commented Feb 12, 2017 at 18:07
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Since it doesn't seem to be possible to connect from/to the vmware VMs using the VirutalBox HostOnly adapter, I used the following work-around:

  • Use VirtualBox to create a new VM using the settings from the vmx file (e.g. memory size)
  • Select the vmdk file of the VmWare VM as hard disk for the new VM
  • Set network to HostOnly adapter
  • Start VM

For a more detailed explanation including screenshots see here

Edit: Removed additonial issues not related to networking.

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  • It is not surprising that the first configuration does not work, having the same network on two different virtual interfaces leaves the kernel in the dark as to how to reach one set of VMs, there can be only one route for a given network or two routes with different metric, which amounts to the same thing. Also, the need for PAE-NX is unrelated to this. It can all be done with routing and with netsh advfirewall.
    – MariusMatutiae
    Commented Feb 12, 2017 at 17:06

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