Network Setup for your Virtual Environment

Once we have installed our Hypervisor, we can start implementing and inteconnecting various VMs.The VM adapter can run on different modes

• NAT (Network Adress Translation) - Default Option
• Bridged Adapter
• Internal networking
• Host-only networking
• NAT with Port Forwarding
• Not attached (No NIC)

NAT is a cool technlogy, but because I want to keep networking under my control, I avoid using it. For example, I want to give my VM Hosts specific IPs, I may want the internet traffic to path through a specific Router etc. 

With the NAT setup, each VM can get an IP Address from the Hypervisor, which also acts as a gateway in order the VMs to be able to access outside networks. 

You can setup the NAT networking, by simply going to File > Preferences...

Network TAB and Add new NAT network.

But as I mentioned I will not use any type of NAT networks on any of my Labs. My typical options are:

• Internal networking - This is my option when I want to create a network that doesn't  have to communicate with the outside world.
• Bridged Adapter  - This is my default option. The virtual NIC is bridged to one of the Phycial NICs of your Host. This is the easiest way to connect a VM to your physical network, and to the Internet. 
• Host-only networking - I use this option when I want to connect my VMs with GNS3