cant resolve virtual server names from host browser

i’ve installed virtualmin onto a new ubuntu guest (running in a windows host) and set up virtual server. the guest has a bridged connection which i am using as the default for the virtual server.

the dns appears to be working ok internally on the guest. test: (1) create a new myvirtualserver.com in virtualmin, (2) add an index.html file at /home/myvirtualserver/public_html, (3) type myvirtualserver.com into browser, (4) voila! (it works)

the browser lookup doesn’t work from my windows host. i have an very rough idea what the problem may be… the dns server has a local (guest) address of 127.0.1.1. Obviously this is only correct on the guest. To make this visible to the host do I need to map it to a an external IP? If so, how? If so, does the DNS server need its own separate adapter connection to the vbox (windows) host, or can it somehow use the one i set up to access my virtual servers?

i can make this work by hacking windows /host file but thats not proving the guest DNS is working properly and wont reflect a live server situation. I’ve also tried adding the address of my vbox bridge IP to windows DNS list for my wifi connection but this doesnt doesnt have the desired result.

Im happy to send any further info or diagnostics to make get DNS resolution working from windows host to linux guest.

thanks,

laurence

Howdy,

Let’s start with perhaps a simple way of tackling this –

On this particular Virtual Machine, are you just looking to host one, or maybe a small handful, of domains?

Or are you expecting to host a bunch?

And do they need to be available externally? Or is this just for your own personal use?

If you don’t have many, and it’s just for your own personal use – I suppose I’m curious if you might be able to simplify your setup by just adding entries for them in your Windows lmhosts file.

Also, are you able to access the Virtual Machine from your WIndows PC by using it’s IP address?

-Eric

im going to host a small number of development servers - max 20 - on a single linux vbox guest on a windows host. the dev server is for my own personal use. i can later use the virtualmin transfer service to move virtual servers onto a virtualmin vps with a public ip. i have set up a bridged connection in Virtualbox and i can ping the ip address of the guest from my windows host and i can use the guest IP in the windows host file (as a temporary DNS hack to give me server access from the browser). But Im not really solving (or learning) how to set up bind properly. I really want to set up my virtualmin server as a bind server so that my host browser doesn’t need to rely on the windows host file to resolve server names to ip addresses and can instead use a DNS server as in a live deployment.

thanks