Exposing a Virtual Machine

By default the virtual machines are created inside a private internal network. This allows the user to reach internet but no connections from outside are allowed.

Some times we may want to install a server in the Virtual Machine and grant access to it. There are many ways to expose a Virtual Machine and allow access to it from outside. Here we describe a few: set a public IP address, redirect with IPTables and HTTP forwarding.

Setting a public IP

One way to expose the virtual machine is use a public IP instead the private used by default. To do so you have to manually edit the machine definition before creating the base. Change the network settings to bridge.

This setting gives the more exposure to the virtual machine, so firewalls and other security measures must be configured.

IPTables redirection

You can redirect a port from the host or a virtual machine acting as gateway to the internal address of the machine you want to expose.

This technique restricts which ports from the internal machine are exposed from outside.

HTTP Forwarding

HTTP forwarding can be configured in a web server in the host to access internal web services from outside.

Expose Ports

Ports from the virtual machine can be exposed to outside with this new feature introduced in release 0.5.