Hyper-V: Access Host in Offline Mode

Question

I have installed and configured Hyper-V on my Laptop with Windows 10 Professional. I have as well one VM with Ubuntu 16.04 OS. My Problem is that I do not know how to access Windows 10 host Shared Folders from the Ubuntu Guest, when the host is offline / not connected to Internet, which means when it has no IP address assigned. Here, I wish to keep automatic IP Address assigning (DHCP) enabled, as the laptop has only one NIC (WiFi).

The Ubuntu 16.04 has installed SAMBA. I can access shared folders of the Windows 10 Host when the host has IP Address assigned.

However, I am not always connected to the internet. When without internet I still want to access the host from the VM guest OS. For those moments I do not want to assign temporary IP Address to he WiFi NIC. I would like to have more elegant solution.

Is there a way to assign secondary IP Address to my laptop/host (this time static)? This IP Address would be used only for the guest OS to see the host at all the times, regardless of whether the host has dynamically assigned IP address or not.

Is there any other solution for my problem? Thank you many times.

Answer 1

Ok, I have found the solution for those having similar problem:

1. In Hyper-V Manager create one more Virtual Switch, this time Internal Virtual Switch.
2. In the host OS, here Windows 10, edit the newly created Virtual Switch and assign desired IP Address and Subnet Mask.
3. Since we need to communicate between Host and Guest only, there is no need to enter Default Gateway.
4. Save your settings, restart the Guest OS.
5. Now you will be able to ping the Host OS from the VM Guest OS, whether host is online or offline. Great!