How can a CentOS 6 guest running in VirtualBox be configured as a LAMP server that can be accessed from the Windows host?

Question

I was able to conect Centos6 on Virtual Box to Windows (I can ping in both directions) with Host-only Adapter (for connection between the two) and NAT Adapter (to enable Linux on VB to connect to the Internet). I want to set up httpd, mysql and vsftpd servers and in the end easily connect to httpd from Windows based browser and ftp server with a Windows based client as well. I would also want to have access through SSH.

I have a general idea of the steps that are involved, but there is also a configuration that I am not sure about at this point. Lets say I follow these steps:

yum install httpd
yum install php php-pear php-mysql 
yum install mysql-server
mysql_secure_installation
yum install vsftpd
yum install mod_ssl 

Technically I have everything installed, but what would be the next steps that I need to take (from the networking point of view, so to speak) to get it all working)?

I know I need to configure, at least Apache, and ftp server, but I am not sure how is it gonna work; like where am I gonna be uloading the sites (I know this can vary), how am I gonna know what address to use in a browser if I wanna go to a website x, y, z on that installation etc. This sounds like I need to do some kind of DNS setup and I am kind of stuck at this point.

If somebody could give me a general outline of what are the things that need to be done that would be great (I was looking at a lot of websites and I know about /etc/sysconfig/network, httpd.config - not too much about it on Apache's site, hostname, hostname -f etc; but it is kind of hard to piece it all together at this point). I am gonna be looking at the books also, but they not always reflect the setup that I have too (VirtualBox).

@cyberx86

Thank you. I was trying to connect with Putty and I was not able to. I also looked at all the network configuration info (ipconfig /all and ifconfig) and that information has changed also. I keep making screenshots, because it is hard to keep track of it when I am not sure how is it suppose to work (pictures are here http://www.joliett89.comli.com/)

After the installation I was using (I think) 192.168.56.1 to ping host (Windows) from Linux and 192.168.56.101 the other way. Today I think it should be 169.254.230.113 (ping from Linux) and 192.168.56.101 (the same, ping from Windows to Linux). So it gets confusing quickly. Based on above information I was trying to use Putty with 192.168.56.101 as an address and that did not work...

(Host-only network is basically the network that needs to connect Windows and Linux)

Answer 1

From the problems you're having I'd say you should start with http://tldp.org/LDP/intro-linux/html/index.html and http://tldp.org/LDP/sag/html/index.html

You'll save time in the end by reading them first and asking questions for more specific things later.

Answer 2

A fairly easy approach to this is using the Bridged Network option in Virtualbox - it will let your virtual machine (VM) be assigned an IP address on your network, which you can then use to access the VM.

In terms of configuring Apache, etc. on the VM, there really shouldn't be any differences compared to a normal configuration. You will be able to either access the services on your VM via the VM's IP address, or if using virtual hosts, can configure your hosts file (C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts - edit as Administrator) to map a domain name to the VM's IP. (Which would allow you enter an actual domain name, or subdomain in your browser, and also in your FTP client in order to access your VM).

The default Apache configuration should display a welcome page. Without further configuration, you can try to access that using curl (or lynx) from your VM, and then using the VM IP (or a domain added to hosts) from Windows.

Presumably, you will want to be adding files to your web root directory. One commonly used value is /var/www/html. Of course, whatever location you choose needs to be specified in your httpd.conf (and associated config files) in order for the pages to be displayed.

There is a good chance that the SSH daemon is already running on your VM - try running service ssh status to confirm. Your SSH login is the same as the login you use to access the VM. Use PuTTY to connect from Windows, and enter the IP address of your VM.

If you are not concerned with the exercise of configuring your FTP server, you may find it easier to use SCP (e.g. WinSCP) to connect to your VM and transfer files over. It should work quite easily once you have SSH running.

If you are looking for setup instructions for the server part, I would recommend the 'Perfect Server' articles on HowToForge as a good primer.