Setting Up Networking For An Ubuntu 16.10 Server in VirtualBox

At https://dronze.com we use use virtualbox to do local development is great. I use it so I can emulate configurations that I would normally have to do in aws. This is a simple guide to setting up a server on your laptop that be sshed into and can access the internet.

Setting up the Vbox Instance

I downloaded the iso from the Ubuntu 16.10 download site and mounted it as an optical drive for the install.

Setup The Network Adapters

Set the VirtualBox Preferences for Networking

Setting Up Networking On Your Instance

You will now be able to ssh into your instance. Use the ip address that has been allocated for the Host-Only adapter:

clay@ubuntu-vbox:~$ ifconfig
enp0s3: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.99.100  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.99.255
        inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe98:648e  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether 08:00:27:98:64:8e  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 153  bytes 17965 (17.9 KB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 104  bytes 13118 (13.1 KB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10<host>
        loop  txqueuelen 1  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 332  bytes 24748 (24.7 KB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 332  bytes 24748 (24.7 KB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

In our case it is 192.168.99.100 so we ssh into the instance with the user and password we used when we installed ubuntu 16.10

$ ssh clay@192.168.99.100
clay@192.168.99.100's password:
Welcome to Ubuntu 16.10 (GNU/Linux 4.8.0-22-generic x86_64)
* Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com
 * Management:     https://landscape.canonical.com
 * Support:        https://ubuntu.com/advantage
99 packages can be updated.
45 updates are security updates.
Last login: Wed Feb 15 17:19:53 2017 from 192.168.99.1
clay@ubuntu-vbox:~$

Now we want to list the available adapters, in our case it is enp0s3 & enp0s8

clay@ubuntu-vbox:~$ ls /sys/class/net
enp0s3  enp0s8  lo

You will now use this to edit the interfaces file and bind your host only to the NAT.

clay@ubuntu-vbox:~$ sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces
# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
# Host-only interface
auto enp0s3
iface enp0s3 inet static
  192.168.99.1
        address         192.168.99.100
        netmask         255.255.255.0
        network         192.168.99.0
        broadcast       192.168.99.255
# NAT interface
auto enp0s8
iface enp0s8 inet dhcp
clay@ubuntu-vbox:~$ sudo reboot now

Reboot the instance and ssh back in. Now your adapter should be visible to ifconfig:

clay@ubuntu-vbox:~$ ifconfig
enp0s3: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.99.100  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.99.255
        inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe98:648e  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether 08:00:27:98:64:8e  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 153  bytes 17965 (17.9 KB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 104  bytes 13118 (13.1 KB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
enp0s8: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 10.0.3.15  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 10.0.3.255
        inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe87:7e00  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether 08:00:27:87:7e:00  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 19  bytes 2686 (2.6 KB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 35  bytes 3392 (3.3 KB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10<host>
        loop  txqueuelen 1  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 332  bytes 24748 (24.7 KB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 332  bytes 24748 (24.7 KB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

And you should be able to reach the internet:

clay@ubuntu-vbox:~$ ping yahoo.com
PING yahoo.com (98.139.183.24) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from ir2.fp.vip.bf1.yahoo.com (98.139.183.24): icmp_seq=1 ttl=63 time=59.0 ms
64 bytes from ir2.fp.vip.bf1.yahoo.com (98.139.183.24): icmp_seq=2 ttl=63 time=58.6 ms

Hope this helps…