How to reach a virtualized application server running on Mac OS X from an outside computer or tablet [closed]

Question

After Googling for hours on end looking for a solution I decided to leave a message on this forum. I hope you guys can give me a push in the right direction to solve this issue.

I am using a Macbook running OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard). This machine is connected with a wifi router and has a local IP address: 192.168.104.172.

On this Macbook I am running Windows 7 using Parallels Desktop. (Don't make fun of me now, please. I have no choice. :) ) On this (virtual) Windows 7 instance I am running an application server that I use to test web applications that I develop with a special Windows tool called Mendix.

Because our company uses primarily Macs as client machines, I test the web application in various browsers on OS X: Safari, Firefox and Chrome. I connect to the application server that runs on Windows 7 through the IP address of the Windows 7 virtual server. To put it simply: I point my browser to the IP address (10.211.55.4) and port number (8080) of the Windows 7 instance and I can start testing my web application.

For a new release of the web application we want to start using tablets, probably iPads. To test the web application, I am using an iPad that is connected to the same wifi router as my Macbook. I want to connect to the application server of the virtual Windows 7 instance. However, I can't use IP address 10.211.55.4 for testing because this is only available on the Macbook as it's a local address to that Mac. So I need to find a way to have OS X forward the HTTP request to the Windows 7 server and send the response back to the iPad.

I have been looking at port forwarding and checked out natd and ipfw but I can't get the configuration right. Maybe this isn't even the way the go I have started to ask myself. Can this issue be solved with the standard networking tools that come with OS X or do I need additional server tools to make this happen? I hope that anyone on this forum can put me back on track and help me solve the issue.

Answer 1

Original answer here please give him credit too. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2970442/running-a-server-in-parallels-virtual-machine-is-it-possible-for-the-host-to-ac

You want to put your guest into "bridged" networking mode. This will allow it to obtain an IP address on the same network as your host OS (from your router via DHCP or statically configured).

See this:

• Shared Networking – the recommended type of networking for the VM. Your virtual machine will share whatever network connection is used by your Mac. You will be able to access the network from the VM as long your Mac OS X is connected to the network. The only limitation of this mode is that the VM is not visible from the external network

• Bridged Networking – uses your network adapter. You should choose this mode if you want to access the VM from the external network. Please keep in mind that your network configuration should allow using DHCP to assign IP address for the VM, or you should obtain a static IP for the VM and set it in the guest OS.