Setup for the following technology:

  • Windows 10 as host machine
  • VirtualBox 6.0.18
  • Guest OS is Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa) Server Beta [other versions since around 17.10 will work]

The aim is being able to access the guest on a static IP from the host to upload/download files and for the guest to be able to access the internet for API access to external services, apt update etc.

VirtualBox

For this to happen the VM needs 2 network adapters:

  • a host-only network adapter and configure the VM with a static IP address (for host to guest access)
  • NAT network adapter (for access to the outside world)

To begin it is assumed you have downloaded the relevant Ubuntu iso file, created a new virtual machine through VirtualBox and gone through that install process. Do a sudo apt update & sudo apt upgrade to have the OS up to date and then sudo shutdown now.

Back in VirtualBox. For this VM, choose settings and the Network.

VirtualBox Network Adapter 1 image
VirtualBox Network Adapter 1

Now go to Adapter 2, check Enable Network Adapter and choose Attached to ‘Host-only Adapter’.

VirtualBox Network Adapter 2 image
VirtualBox Network Adapter 2

OK to save the new setting and start the VM. You will now be back in the console window.

Ubuntu and Netplan

To see the network interfaces available type:

ip a

and you will get output like:

Ubuntu 20.04 ip a before static IP
Ubuntu 20.04 ip a before static IP

Netplan is the network management tool on Ubuntu these days, so forget the old /etc/network/interfaces.

cd /etc/netplan
ls -la

Depending on your Ubuntu version you will see a filename like 01-netcfg.yaml for my Ubuntu 20.04 server or 50-cloud-init.yaml for Ubuntu 18.04. Make a backup of that file in case something goes wrong and you need to roll back.

sudo cp 01-netcfg.yaml 01-netcfg.yaml.110420

Now edit the config file with your preferred text editor (vi, nano etc). In the image below I have added the other network interface as seen from ip a and have given it the static IP of 192.168.56.108.

Netplan screenshot for static IP
Netplan cfg with static IP

sudo netplan apply

ip a

Ubuntu 20.04 ip a after static IP
Ubuntu 20.04 ip a after static IP

And that is it. I can now ssh / ftp into the guest server from the host on its static IP address and the guest can connect to the internet.