Can't Access Apache on VirtualBox VM (using NAT + Host-only)

Question

Short Description:

My host OS is Ubuntu-12.04 and using VirtualBox I have set up a VM of Oracle Linux 6.4 (based on RHEL) with Apache httpd web server. I need to access the web pages served by the VM from my host Ubuntu.

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Additional Details:

Here are the configurations:

• The 1st network adapter of the VM is configured as NAT, since I need it to use the host's Internet connection. See image below:

  NAT configuration of 1st adapter:

• I have enabled a 2nd adapter as Host-only, so I can access the VM from the host (ssh or scp to guest VM from host, etc). This is working fine. The IP of the guest VM is manually set to 10.10.10.15 and I can successfully ping, ssh and scp to the guest VM without any problem. See below:

  Host-only configuration of 2nd adapter:

Inside the VM, I have set up Apache successfully and it's working for localhost but when I try to access the page from the host, by entering 10.10.10.15 in Chromium or Firefox, it fails to connect! :(

I have also tried to add an entry inside /etc/hosts as follows, but entering test-website.net inside Chromium or Firefox still gives the same error! :(

10.10.10.15    test-website.net

One more thing to note is about SELinux. As you might know, SELinux is enabled by default on RHEL-based distros such as CentOS and Oracle-Linux. To make sure that SELinux is not messing up my work, I have configured it to permissive mode in /etc/selinux/config and confirming the effect after reboot using sestatus:

SELinux status:                 enabled
SELinuxfs mount:                /selinux
Current mode:                   permissive
Mode from config file:          permissive
Policy version:                 26
Policy from config file:        targeted

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This may sound like a duplicate of the following questions, but the answers in these questions suggest to set up a Host-only adapter for the guest and configure /etc/hosts in the host, which I have already tested and didn't work for me:

• Question #1
• Question #2

Any help?!

Solution

I figured out what was causing the problem ... iptables!

The configuration I have set up for the VM should work without any problem.

If anyone with the same setup is facing problems, checkout the following:

• System firewall (i.e. iptables) configuration;
• SELinux configuration;

cheers :)

Comments

[ignis]

If you run wget 10.10.10.15 in the host, what error does it display?

[Seyed Mohammad]

Actually I didn't do anything special after installing Apache with YUM, other than starting the httpd service. What should I do ?

[Terry Wang]

yum... that is CentOS/RHEL, this is for Ubuntu/Debian, wrong place...

[Seyed Mohammad]

I did mention in the question that the VM is Oracle Linux which is based on RHEL ... Can you please explain your note on binding Apache to all interfaces ... What exactly should I do to fix my problem?

[Terry Wang]

In your site's configuration file, what did you bind to? e.g. <VirtualHost *:80>

[Seyed Mohammad]

I haven't done any binding. Actually I don't need the server to be accessed by a name. The VM's IP address (i.e. 10.10.10.15) is fine if it works ...

[Terry Wang]

Do a netstat -nap | grep :80 see if it's binding to 10.10.10.15, also ping the IP and make sure you can reach it (there is route).

[rfay]

To manually turn off iptables in the guest: sudo service iptables stop

[Christopher Markieta]

Turning off iptables should not be the solution!

[Seyed Mohammad]

@ChristopherMarkieta Yes, turning off iptables can have security consequences and it is only recommended for controlled test environments. For a production system the correct way is to configure iptables to allow the desired traffic to pass in and out.

[Alexander]

Thanks its always iptables and yes, selinux is a "problem, too". If you want to connect to the host using mod_proxy, make sure to call /usr/sbin/setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect 1, too. See for example viewsby.wordpress.com/2012/07/03/…