Introduction

Multipass is a tool created by Canonical to easily manage VM’s in a development environment. It looks like a lightweight version of Hashicorp’s Vagrant. It has significant restrictions compared to Vagrant (uses only Ubuntu images, has a limited set of features) but it has a significant feature that convinced me to use it: it allows me to configure a VM using its cloud-init built-in provider. This is very useful if I want to test images for the cloud, because is significantluy faster - I’m developing and testing locally and don’t wait for a cloud VM deployment. Also, if I use cloud-init I
can avoid creating too many specialized VM images to deploy for a given application.

On my Windows development machine I am using VirtualBox as a virtualization engine, instead of the default Hyper-V available on Windows. VirtualBox is multiplatform and has a richer set of features compared to Hyper-V. Using it on top of Hyper-V is possible, but it runs very slowy. When used with Multipass, VirtualBox has a major drawback: it does not offer a readily available way to access the guest VM’s from the host machine.

Objectives

I am describing below the steps required to access the VirtualBox guest machines from the Windows host:

There are three main methods to do this:

  1. Bridged network: I’m creating an additional interface on the guest VM and bridge it to an interface available on the host. The guest will be accesible from the host and from the external network.
  2. Host-only network: I’m creating an additional interface on the guest VM and connect it to the internal “VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter” switch. The guest will be accesible only from the host.
  3. Port forwarding: I will create a port forwarding rule between the application port on the guest and an available port on the host machine, using the host-only interface of the VirtualBox environment.
    I will use the command-line tool vboxmanage to configure the guest VM’s (see below).

I will create four VMs (vm1, vm2, vm3 and vm4), using different versions of Ubuntu LTS:

  • vm1, vm2 and vm3 will use the newer versions of Ubuntu (Bionic and Focal) and their internal network settings will be configured using the netplan and ip Linux tools.
  • vm1 will use method (1) and vm2 will use method (2) above
  • vm3 will use method (3). To demonstrate the usage of the port forwarding method I will install the Webmin software on vm3 and I will access it from a browser running on the host machine.
  • vm4 will apply method (1) the older Ubuntu Xenial and I will use the ifupdown tools to configure the internal network.

The multipass software runs in Windows under the SYSTEM account and I need the PsExec64.exe tool to interact with it, from an admin-mode PowerShell console. The VirtualBox VM’s will be configured using the vboxmanage command-line utility, as installed by the VirtualBox package.

Detailed prerequiste steps

P00. Read this document. Consult the references.
P01. Download and install VirtualBox.
P02. Download and install Multipass.
P03. Download and install PsExec64.exe from Sysinternals tools package (Microsoft). I will assume PsExec64.exe is located in the C:\AdmTools folder and the folder is added to the system path (update the system PATH environment variable)
P04. Check where the vboxmanage utility is located (in the Oracle VirtualBox installation folder). It is normally available as
C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\vboxmanage.exe
P05. Locate and review the vboxmanage documentation
P06. Launch user-mode PowerShell (first console session - I will work with two PowerShell console sessions open concurrently). The user-mode console will be also used bu Multipass as a Linux console interface :)
P07. Launch admin-mode PowerShell (second console session)
P08. Set VirtualBox as the hypervisor for Multipass (admin-mode PowerShell):

PS C:\Windows\system32> multipass set local.driver=virtualbox

P09. List the machine images available on the Canonical repository (user-mode PowerShell):

PS C:\Users\Adrian> multipass find
   Image                   Aliases           Version          Description
   16.04                   xenial            20200430         Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
   18.04                   bionic,lts        20200506         Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
   20.04                   focal             20200504         Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
PS C:\Users\Adrian>

P10. Create & launch 4 different VM’s:

PS C:\Users\Adrian> multipass launch -n vm1 bionic
Launched: vm1
PS C:\Users\Adrian> multipass launch -n vm2 focal
Launched: vm2
PS C:\Users\Adrian> multipass launch -n vm3 -m 5G -c 2 bionic
Launched: vm3
PS C:\Users\Adrian> multipass launch -n vm4 xenial
Launched: vm4
PS C:\Users\Adrian>

P11. Stop the VM’s:

PS C:\Users\Adrian> multipass stop --all

Below I’m describing below the three access methods in detail.

A. Configure access using bridged networking

A01. Start vm1:

PS C:\Users\Adrian> multipass shell vm1

A02. View configuration summary:

System load:  0.45              Processes:             86
Usage of /:   21.0% of 4.67GB   Users logged in:       0
Memory usage: 15%               IP address for enp0s3: 10.0.2.15
Swap usage:   0%

Note: only the enp0s3 interface is active, IP: 10.0.2.15

A03. Stop vm1:

PS C:\Users\Adrian> multipass stop vm1

A04. Get Windows network interfaces info, using the user-mode PowerShell:

PS C:\Users\Adrian> Get-NetAdapter -Physical | format-list -property "Name","DriverDescription"


Name              : Ethernet 3
DriverDescription : Intel(R) Ethernet Connection I219-LM

Name              : WiFi 2
DriverDescription : Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260

Note: the value of the”DriverDescription” property for the Windows interface I intend to use is

DriverDescription : "Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260"

A05. Get vm1 info from VirtualBox, using the admin-mode PowerShell:

PS C:\Windows\system32> PsExec64.exe -s "c:\program files\oracle\virtualbox\vboxmanage" showvminfo "vm1"
[showing here only the NIC related info]
NIC 1:                       MAC: 08002740E542, Attachment: NAT, Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type:    82540EM, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0, Promisc Policy: deny, Bandwidth group: none
NIC 1 Settings:  MTU: 0, Socket (send: 64, receive: 64), TCP Window (send:64, receive: 64)
NIC 1 Rule(0):   name = ssh, protocol = tcp, host ip = , host port = 49975, guest ip = , guest port = 22
NIC 2:                       disabled
NIC 3:                       disabled
NIC 4:                       disabled
NIC 5:                       disabled
NIC 6:                       disabled
NIC 7:                       disabled
NIC 8:                       disabled

Note: vm1 has configured only NIC1, used to communicate through SSH with the host computer (Multipass session)

A06. Add a new NIC adapter (NIC2) to vm1:

PS C:\Windows\system32> PsExec64.exe -s "c:\program files\oracle\virtualbox\vboxmanage" modifyvm "vm1" --nic2 bridged --bridgeadapter2 "Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260"

A07. Get vm1 info from VirtualBox, using the admin-mode PowerShell:

PS C:\Windows\system32> PsExec64.exe -s "c:\program files\oracle\virtualbox\vboxmanage" showvminfo "vm1"
[showing here only the NIC related info]
NIC 1:                       MAC: 08002740E542, Attachment: NAT, Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type:    82540EM, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0, Promisc Policy: deny, Bandwidth group: none
NIC 1 Settings:  MTU: 0, Socket (send: 64, receive: 64), TCP Window (send:64, receive: 64)
NIC 1 Rule(0):   name = ssh, protocol = tcp, host ip = , host port = 49975, guest ip = , guest port = 22
NIC 2:                       MAC: 0800270F3144, Attachment: Bridged Interface 'Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260',    Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: 82540EM, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0, Promisc Policy:    deny, Bandwidth group: none
NIC 3:                       disabled
NIC 4:                       disabled
NIC 5:                       disabled
NIC 6:                       disabled
NIC 7:                       disabled
NIC 8:                       disabled

Note: new interface NIC2, bridged to the ‘Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260’

A08. Start vm1:

PS C:\Users\Adrian> multipass shell vm1
[view the hardware info for vm1:]

System load:  0.89              Processes:             86
Usage of /:   21.0% of 4.67GB   Users logged in:       0
Memory usage: 15%               IP address for enp0s3: 10.0.2.15
Swap usage:   0%

A09. Get network info for vm1:

ubuntu@vm1:~$ ip address show
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
        valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host
        valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp0s3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 08:00:27:40:e5:42 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 10.0.2.15/24 brd 10.0.2.255 scope global dynamic enp0s3
        valid_lft 86298sec preferred_lft 86298sec
    inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe40:e542/64 scope link
        valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: enp0s8: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 08:00:27:0f:31:44 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Note: vm1 has an new unconfigured network interface enp0s8

A10. Check the content of /etc/netplan:

ubuntu@vm1:~$ sudo ls /etc/netplan
50-cloud-init.yaml

A11. Modify the netplan configuration:

ubuntu@vm1:~$ sudo nano /etc/netplan/60-extra-interfaces.yaml

A12. Add the lines below to the file and save:

network:
    ethernets:
    enp0s8:
        optional: yes
        dhcp4: yes
        dhcp4-overrides:
        route-metric: 10
        dhcp6: yes
        dhcp6-overrides:
        route-metric: 10

A13. Ask netplan to apply the new configuration:

ubuntu@vm1:~$ sudo netplan apply

A14. Check if the interface enp0s8 received a DHCP address:

ubuntu@vm1:~$ ip address show
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
        valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host
        valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp0s3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 08:00:27:40:e5:42 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 10.0.2.15/24 brd 10.0.2.255 scope global dynamic enp0s3
        valid_lft 86180sec preferred_lft 86180sec
    inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe40:e542/64 scope link
        valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: enp0s8: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 08:00:27:0f:31:44 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.0.24/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global dynamic enp0s8
        valid_lft 86182sec preferred_lft 86182sec
    inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe0f:3144/64 scope link
        valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Note: enp0s8 is up and has an address allocated by DHCP

A15. Check the routing table:

ubuntu@vm1:~$ ip route show
default via 192.168.0.1 dev enp0s8 proto dhcp src 192.168.0.24 metric 10
default via 10.0.2.2 dev enp0s3 proto dhcp src 10.0.2.15 metric 100
10.0.2.0/24 dev enp0s3 proto kernel scope link src 10.0.2.15
10.0.2.2 dev enp0s3 proto dhcp scope link src 10.0.2.15 metric 100
192.168.0.0/24 dev enp0s8 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.0.24
192.168.0.1 dev enp0s8 proto dhcp scope link src 192.168.0.24 metric 10

A16. Ping the interface from the user-mode PowerShell:

PS C:\Users\Adrian> ping 192.168.0.24

Pinging 192.168.0.24 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.0.24: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.24: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.24: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.24: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.0.24:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 1ms, Average = 0ms

A17. Stop vm1:

PS C:\Users\Adrian> multipass stop vm1

Important: Check the settings of the firewall installed on the host machine, as well as the firewall on the guest before using the guest for other purposes.

B. Configure access using host-only networking

B01. Start vm2:

PS C:\Users\Adrian> multipass shell vm2

B02. View vm2 guest configuration summary:

System load:  0.35              Processes:               102
Usage of /:   25.7% of 4.67GB   Users logged in:         0
Memory usage: 16%               IPv4 address for enp0s3: 10.0.2.15
Swap usage:   0%

Note: only enp0s3 interface is active

B03. Stop vm2:

PS C:\Users\Adrian> multipass stop vm2

B04. Get Windows network interfaces info, using the user-mode PowerShell:

PS C:\Users\Adrian> Get-NetAdapter -Physical | format-list -property "Name","DriverDescription"

Name              : Ethernet 3
DriverDescription : Intel(R) Ethernet Connection I219-LM

Name              : WiFi 2
DriverDescription : Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260

Note: the value of the”DriverDescription” property for the Windows interface I will use:
DriverDescription : "Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260"

B05. Get vm2 info from VirtualBox, using the admin-mode PowerShell:

PS C:\Windows\system32>  PsExec64.exe -s "c:\program files\oracle\virtualbox\vboxmanage" showvminfo "vm2"
[extracted only vm2 NIC related info]
   NIC 1:                       MAC: 080027A683AB, Attachment: NAT, Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type:    82540EM, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0, Promisc Policy: deny, Bandwidth group: none
   NIC 1 Settings:  MTU: 0, Socket (send: 64, receive: 64), TCP Window (send:64, receive: 64)
   NIC 1 Rule(0):   name = ssh, protocol = tcp, host ip = , host port = 50137, guest ip = , guest port = 22
   NIC 2:                       disabled
   NIC 3:                       disabled
   NIC 4:                       disabled
   NIC 5:                       disabled
   NIC 6:                       disabled
   NIC 7:                       disabled
   NIC 8:                       disabled

Note: vm2 has configured only NIC1, used to communicate through SSH with the host computer (Multipass session)

B06. Add a new NIC adapter (NIC2) to vm2:

PS C:\Windows\system32>  PsExec64.exe -s "c:\program files\oracle\virtualbox\vboxmanage" modifyvm "vm2" --nic2 hostonly    --hostonlyadapter2 "VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter"

B07. Get vm2 info from VirtualBox, using the admin-mode PowerShell:

PS C:\Windows\system32> PsExec64.exe -s "c:\program files\oracle\virtualbox\vboxmanage" showvminfo "vm2"

[selected only NIC related info]
NIC 1:                       MAC: 080027A683AB, Attachment: NAT, Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), 
Type: 82540EM, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0, Promisc Policy: deny, Bandwidth group: none
NIC 1 Settings:  MTU: 0, Socket (send: 64, receive: 64), TCP Window (send:64, receive: 64)
NIC 1 Rule(0):   name = ssh, protocol = tcp, host ip = , host port = 50137, guest ip = , guest port = 22
NIC 2:                       MAC: 0800278AB776, Attachment: Host-only Interface 'VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter', 
Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: 82540EM, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0, 
Promisc Policy: deny, Bandwidth group: none
NIC 3:                       disabled
NIC 4:                       disabled
NIC 5:                       disabled
NIC 6:                       disabled
NIC 7:                       disabled
NIC 8:                       disabled

Note: new NIC2, connected to the host-only adapter

B08. Start vm2:

PS C:\Users\Adrian> multipass shell vm2

B09. Review the machine data:

System load:  0.97              Processes:               102
Usage of /:   25.8% of 4.67GB   Users logged in:         0
Memory usage: 17%               IPv4 address for enp0s3: 10.0.2.15
Swap usage:   0%

B10. Display the vm2 NIC configuration:

ubuntu@vm2:~$ ip address show
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
      link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
      inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
         valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
      inet6 ::1/128 scope host
         valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp0s3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
      link/ether 08:00:27:a6:83:ab brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
      inet 10.0.2.15/24 brd 10.0.2.255 scope global dynamic enp0s3
         valid_lft 85417sec preferred_lft 85417sec
      inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fea6:83ab/64 scope link
         valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: enp0s8: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN group default qlen 1000
      link/ether 08:00:27:8a:b7:76 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Note: adapter enp0s8 is not configured

B11. Check the content of /etc/netplan:

ubuntu@vm2:~$ sudo ls /etc/netplan
50-cloud-init.yaml

B12. Modify the netplan configuration:

ubuntu@vm2:~$ sudo nano /etc/netplan/60-extra-interfaces.yaml

B13. Add the lines below to the file and save:

network:
   ethernets:
      enp0s8:
      optional: yes
      dhcp4: yes
      dhcp4-overrides:
         route-metric: 110
      dhcp6: yes
      dhcp6-overrides:
         route-metric: 110

B14. Ask netplan to apply the new configuration:

ubuntu@vm2:~$ sudo netplan apply

B15. Check if the interface enp0s8 received a DHCP address:

ubuntu@vm2:~$ ip address show
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
      link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
      inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
         valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
      inet6 ::1/128 scope host
         valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp0s3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
      link/ether 08:00:27:a6:83:ab brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
      inet 10.0.2.15/24 brd 10.0.2.255 scope global dynamic enp0s3
         valid_lft 86394sec preferred_lft 86394sec
      inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fea6:83ab/64 scope link
         valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: enp0s8: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
      link/ether 08:00:27:8a:b7:76 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
      inet 192.168.56.101/24 brd 192.168.56.255 scope global dynamic enp0s8
         valid_lft 594sec preferred_lft 594sec
      inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe8a:b776/64 scope link
         valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Note: interface enp0s8 is up and has an address allocated by DHCP. The subnet is different from that used by the bridged networking.

B16. Check the routing table:

ubuntu@vm2:~$ ip route show
default via 10.0.2.2 dev enp0s3 proto dhcp src 10.0.2.15 metric 100
10.0.2.0/24 dev enp0s3 proto kernel scope link src 10.0.2.15
10.0.2.2 dev enp0s3 proto dhcp scope link src 10.0.2.15 metric 100
192.168.56.0/24 dev enp0s8 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.56.101

B17. Ping the interface from the user-mode PowerShell:

PS C:\Users\Adrian> ping 192.168.56.101

Pinging 192.168.56.101 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.56.101: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.56.101: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.56.101: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.56.101: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.56.101:
      Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
      Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

B18. Stop vm2:

PS C:\Users\Adrian> multipass stop vm2

Important: Tune the settings of the firewall installed on the host machine, as well as the firewall on the guest before using the guest for other applications.

C. Configure access using port forwarding

C01. Start vm3:

PS C:\Users\Adrian> multipass shell vm3

C02. View configuration:

System load:  0.61              Processes:             95
Usage of /:   21.0% of 4.67GB   Users logged in:       0
Memory usage: 2%                IP address for enp0s3: 10.0.2.15
Swap usage:   0%

Note: only the enp0s3 interface is active

C03. Stop vm3:

PS C:\Users\Adrian> multipass stop vm3

C04. Get Windows network interfaces info, using the user-mode PowerShell

PS C:\Users\Adrian> Get-NetAdapter -Physical | format-list -property "Name","DriverDescription"

Note the value of the”DriverDescription” property for the Windows interface I intend to use: \ DriverDescription : "Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260"

C05. Get vm3 info from VirtualBox, using the admin-mode PowerShell:

PS C:\Windows\system32> PsExec64.exe -s "c:\program files\oracle\virtualbox\vboxmanage" showvminfo "vm3"

[reviewing only NIC1 related info - it has only one port forwarding rule called "ssh":]
NIC 1 Settings:  MTU: 0, Socket (send: 64, receive: 64), TCP Window (send:64, receive: 64)
NIC 1 Rule(0):   name = ssh, protocol = tcp, host ip = , host port = 54224, guest ip = , guest port = 22

C06. Add a second rule named “webmin”, to forward the host port 10001 to the guest port 10000:

PS C:\Windows\system32> PsExec64.exe -s "c:\program files\oracle\virtualbox\vboxmanage" controlvm "vm3" natpf1    "webmin,tcp,127.0.0.1,10001,,10000"

C07. Check the forwarding rules of vm3:

PS C:\Windows\system32> PsExec64.exe -s "c:\program files\oracle\virtualbox\vboxmanage" showvminfo "vm3"
[review only NIC1 related info - see the new "webmin" rule(1):]
NIC 1: MAC: 080027583846, Attachment: NAT, Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: 82540EM, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot     priority: 0, Promisc Policy: deny, Bandwidth group: none
NIC 1 Settings:  MTU: 0, Socket (send: 64, receive: 64), TCP Window (send:64, receive: 64)
NIC 1 Rule(0):   name = ssh, protocol = tcp, host ip = , host port = 54403, guest ip = , guest port = 22
NIC 1 Rule(1):   name = webmin, protocol = tcp, host ip = 127.0.0.1, host port = 10001, guest ip = , guest port = 10000

C08. Start installing webmin on vm3:

PS C:\Users\Adrian> multipass shell vm3

C09. Update packages, install the required dependencies:

ubuntu@vm3:~$ sudo apt-get update
ubuntu@vm3:~$ sudo apt-get install software-properties-common apt-transport-https wget

C10. Import the GPG key for webmin, using wget:

ubuntu@vm3:~$ wget -q http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

C11. Add the webmin repository and install webmin:

ubuntu@vm3:~$ sudo add-apt-repository "deb [arch=amd64] http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib"
ubuntu@vm3:~$ sudo apt-get  install webmin

C12. Open port 10000 on vm3 using the ufw firewall:

ubuntu@vm3:~$ sudo ufw allow 10000/tcp

C13. Add a new user with sudo rights - I will use it to access webmin from the host:

ubuntu@vm3:~$ sudo adduser adrian
ubuntu@vm3:~$ sudo usermod -aG sudo adrian

C14. Connect to vm3 webmin interface using a browser on the host machine to access https://localhost:10001, and the credentials of the user defined above. Ignore the warnings related to the unsafe site/invalid SSL certificate for localhost

Note: Tune the settings of the firewall installed on the host machine if you want to access the application running on the guest from a different machine than the host.

D. Configure access using bridged networking - older version of Ubuntu

D01. Start vm4:

PS C:\Users\Adrian> multipass shell vm4

D02. View the network interfaces configuration summary:

ubuntu@vm4:~$ ifconfig -a
enp0s3    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 08:00:27:58:b3:43
         inet addr:10.0.2.15  Bcast:10.0.2.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
         inet6 addr: fe80::a00:27ff:fe58:b343/64 Scope:Link
         UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
         RX packets:574 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
         TX packets:152 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
         collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
         RX bytes:630153 (630.1 KB)  TX bytes:16842 (16.8 KB)

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
         inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
         inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
         UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
         RX packets:160 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
         TX packets:160 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
         collisions:0 txqueuelen:1
         RX bytes:11840 (11.8 KB)  TX bytes:11840 (11.8 KB)

Note: only the enp0s3 interface is active, IP: 10.0.2.15

D03. Stop vm4:

PS C:\Users\Adrian> multipass stop vm4

D04. Get Windows network interfaces info, using the user-mode PowerShell:

Get-NetAdapter -Physical | format-list -property "Name","DriverDescription"

Note the value of the”DriverDescription” property for the Windows interface I will use: \ DriverDescription : "Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260"

D05. Get vm1 info from VirtualBox, using the admin-mode PowerShell:

PS C:\Windows\system32> PsExec64.exe -s "c:\program files\oracle\virtualbox\vboxmanage" showvminfo "vm4"
[review only NIC related info]
NIC 1:                       MAC: 08002758B343, Attachment: NAT, Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: 82540EM, Reported        speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0, Promisc Policy: deny, Bandwidth group: none
NIC 1 Settings:  MTU: 0, Socket (send: 64, receive: 64), TCP Window (send:64, receive: 64)
NIC 1 Rule(0):   name = ssh, protocol = tcp, host ip = , host port = 52935, guest ip = , guest port = 22
NIC 2:                       disabled
NIC 3:                       disabled
NIC 4:                       disabled
NIC 5:                       disabled
NIC 6:                       disabled
NIC 7:                       disabled
NIC 8:                       disabled

Note: vm4 uses only NIC1 to communicate through SSH with the host computer (Multipass session)

D06. Add a new NIC adapter (NIC2) to vm4:

PS C:\Users\Adrian> PsExec64.exe -s "c:\program files\oracle\virtualbox\vboxmanage" modifyvm "vm4" --nic2 bridged --bridgeadapter2 "Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260"

D07. Get vm4 info from VirtualBox, using the admin-mode PowerShell:

PsExec64.exe -s "c:\program files\oracle\virtualbox\vboxmanage" showvminfo "vm4"
[review only NIC related info:]
NIC 1:                       MAC: 08002758B343, Attachment: NAT, Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: 82540EM, Reported    speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0, Promisc Policy: deny, Bandwidth group: none
NIC 1 Settings:  MTU: 0, Socket (send: 64, receive: 64), TCP Window (send:64, receive: 64)
NIC 1 Rule(0):   name = ssh, protocol = tcp, host ip = , host port = 52935, guest ip = , guest port = 22
NIC 2:                       MAC: 08002787F993, Attachment: Bridged Interface 'Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260', Cable connected: on,    Trace: off (file: none), Type: 82540EM, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0, Promisc Policy: deny, Bandwidth group: none
NIC 3:                       disabled
NIC 4:                       disabled
NIC 5:                       disabled
NIC 6:                       disabled
NIC 7:                       disabled
NIC 8:                       disabled

Note: new interface NIC2, bridged to the “Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260”

D08. Start vm4:

PS C:\Users\Adrian> multipass shell vm4

D09. View configuration summary:

ubuntu@vm4:~$ ifconfig -a
enp0s3    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 08:00:27:58:b3:43
            inet addr:10.0.2.15  Bcast:10.0.2.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
            inet6 addr: fe80::a00:27ff:fe58:b343/64 Scope:Link
            UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
            RX packets:122 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
            TX packets:85 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
            collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
            RX bytes:19261 (19.2 KB)  TX bytes:12007 (12.0 KB)

enp0s8    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 08:00:27:87:f9:93
            BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
            RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
            TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
            collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
            RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
            inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
            inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
            UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
            RX packets:160 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
            TX packets:160 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
            collisions:0 txqueuelen:1
            RX bytes:11840 (11.8 KB)  TX bytes:11840 (11.8 KB)

Note: vm4 has an new unconfigured network interface enp0s8

D09. Create a configuration file for the interface enp0s8 in the folder /etc/network/interfaces.d:

ubuntu@vm4:~$ sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces.d/80-enp0s8.cfg

D10. Insert the following data in the file and save:

allow-hotplug enp0s8
iface enp0s8 inet dhcp
  metric 10

D11. Activate the interface:

ubuntu@vm4:~$ sudo ifup enp0s8
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client 4.3.3
Copyright 2004-2015 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/enp0s8/08:00:27:87:f9:93
Sending on   LPF/enp0s8/08:00:27:87:f9:93
Sending on   Socket/fallback
DHCPREQUEST of 192.168.0.25 on enp0s8 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 (xid=0x73062672)
DHCPACK of 192.168.0.25 from 192.168.0.1
bound to 192.168.0.25 -- renewal in 36389 seconds.

Note: enp0s8 is up and has an address allocated by DHCP

D12. Check the routing table:

ubuntu@vm4:~$ route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
default         10.0.2.2        0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 enp0s3
default         192.168.0.1     0.0.0.0         UG    10     0        0 enp0s8
10.0.2.0        *               255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 enp0s3
192.168.0.0     *               255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 enp0s8

D13. Ping the IP of the interface from the user-mode PowerShell:

PS C:\Users\Adrian> ping 192.168.0.25

Pinging 192.168.0.25 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.0.25: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.25: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.25: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.25: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.0.25:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

D14. Stop vm4:

PS C:\Users\Adrian> multipass stop vm4

Note: Check the settings of the firewall installed on the host machine, as well as the firewall on the guest before using the guest for other tests.

E. References

E01. An article by Jon Spriggs. Extremely useful.
E02. Multipass on Windows, explained by the Multipass team (updated).
E03. Multipass website
E04. VirtualBox website
E05. VBoxManage manual
E06. PsExec.exe documentation
E07. Webmin installation on Ubuntu 18.04 article