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Setup SSH access between VirtualBox Host and Guest VMs

Ryan — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 16:50:39 +0000

It is often necessary to have the ability to SSH between your Linux Host and your Guest virtual machines. In VirtualBox you can do this by simply configuring a second network interface on the Guest. This type of setup will not only allow SSH sessions between Host and Guest, but also between separate Guests themselves.

First off shutdown your Guest VM so that you can add a second network interface. By default you should have one interface already which is using NAT. Leave this alone as it provides access to the internet. Select the tab “Adapter 2″ and change “attached to” to “Host-only Adapter”.

Now boot up your Guest and pull up a terminal. Run ifconfig to see what base address eth1 has been assigned. You can use this address as a base to assign static IP addresses for each Guest VM. In this case inet addr:192.168.56.101 is the base IP address.
$ sudo ifconfig eth1
Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX inet addr:192.168.56.101 Bcast:192.168.56.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: XXXX::XXXX:XXXX:XXXX:XXXX/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:296 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:237 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:32116 (31.3 KiB) TX bytes:37642 (36.7 KiB)

If you rely on DHCP you might get a different IP address each time your Guest VM reboots. If this is a problem, you need to setup a static IP address instead.

On a Debian based system edit /etc/network/interfaces to add the following lines. Change the address to your base IP address.
auto eth1 iface eth1 inet static address 192.168.56.101 netmask 255.255.255.0

On a redhat based system edit this file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 and add the following lines. Change the IPADDR to your base IP address.
DEVICE=eth1 BOOTPROTO=static IPADDR=192.168.56.101 NETMASK=255.255.255.0

On your Linux Host you can now open a terminal add ssh to the Guest VM:
$ ssh ryan@192.168.56.101

If you are having problems connecting, make sure that sshd in installed and running, and that the firewall on the is not blocking the SSH service on the VM.

You can create an entry in /etc/hosts so you don’t have to remember the IP address.
192.168.56.101 virtualhost1

This allows you to use the virtual hostname instead.
$ ssh ryan@virtualhost1

How to SSH into Ubuntu LiveCD

Ryan — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:08:44 +0000

The ability to remotely SSH into a machine running an Ubuntu LiveCD can come in handy in many situations. The LiveCD supports a large variety of hardware and can be used to troubleshoot system problems on a machine where you have limited or no access. A user with limited skills can easily setup remote access and allow a trusted friend to troubleshoot the system from another location.

The first thing to start the process is to open a terminal. Follow these menus:

Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal

In the terminal install the ssh server on your LiveCD system.

$ sudo apt-get install openssh-server

The server is started automatically after installing.

To login remotely, you’ll need to set the password for the default ubuntu user.

$ sudo passwd ubuntu
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully

You should now be able to login to the system running the LiveCD. But first you need to find the IP address of the machine so you can connect to it.

The ifconfig command will list your network interfaces and along with it your IP address.

$ ifconfig

eth0      ...
          inet addr:192.168.1.1  Bcast:192.168.2.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          ...

The inet addr entry is your IP address which you need to log into the LiveCD system. As you an see above the IP address begins with “192.168” which indicates that the IP address is only valid on the local network. It was an address assigned to the machine by the router. This is fine if you plan on logging in from another machine on this local network.

If you need to access the machine from outside your local network you have a couple of options. The first is to remove any router between you and the Internet. This should give you a valid IP address which is accessible from outside your local network. You may also be able to access your router’s administration panel and tell it to pass SSH traffic to the IP address of the LiveCD system. You will then use the router’s IP address instead for the next step.

If your IP address already begins with something other than “192.168” then you are safe as well. You should be able to access the LiveCD system from any location, local or not.

Using the IP address from the previous step you can now log into the LiveCD system as the ubuntu user. Use the password you created earler.

$ ssh ubuntu@

Find your MAC address with ifconfig

Ryan — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:06:53 +0000

You can find the MAC address of your system at the command line by using the ifconfig command. The ifconfig command will show you information on all your network interfaces. If no arguments are given ifconfig displays the status of the currently active interfaces.

You have to run this command as root or use sudo.

# ifconfig

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr a1:b2:c3:d4:e5:f6  
          inet addr:192.168.2.11  Bcast:192.168.2.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1492  Metric:1
          RX packets:4007 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:4246 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:3292271 (3.1 MiB)  TX bytes:994922 (971.6 KiB)

Your MAC address is displayed in the HWaddr field.

Find your IP address with ifconfig

Ryan — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:48:07 +0000

You can find the IP address of your system at the command line by using the ifconfig command. The ifconfig command will show you information on all your network interfaces. If no arguments are given ifconfig displays the status of the currently active interfaces.

You have to run this command as root or use sudo.

# ifconfig

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr a1:b2:c3:d4:e5:f6
          inet addr:192.168.2.11  Bcast:192.168.2.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1492  Metric:1
          RX packets:4007 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:4246 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:3292271 (3.1 MiB)  TX bytes:994922 (971.6 KiB)

Your IP address is displayed in the inet addr field.