Preferred virtual domain / network setup for development lab

Question

Given the following requirements:

1 - a virtual dev domain

2 - all VMs can access to the Internet (e.g. for Windows Update)

3 - other physical hosts cannot access the virtual network

What is the best way to achieve this?

In the recent past I put everything on a single VM. This usually worked, but also resulted in what felt like a lot of rework each time the VM needed to be rebuilt. Also, the consensus view seems to be to avoid multi-homed domain controllers.

Originally, I ran separate VMs for a domain controller, a NAT server and any other development servers. This resulted in a practical minumum of 3 VMs running at a time which seemed high.

Is there a better way to tackle this? Is there a preferred configuration among developers for this case?

Answer 1

I'm not sure which virtualization technology you are using, but VirtualBox's NAT network should give you the network configuration you're looking for. All hosts will have access to the internet through the host's network connection, but the machines cannot be accessed from outside the virtual network unless you setup port forwarding through the virtual NAT.