Vboxmanage and host-only interfaces

[Max D]

Original findings and history can be found here -> ​https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=54119

Under Windows, when trying to use host-only adapter commands on vboxmanage, they fail intermittently and return this:

VBoxManage.exe: error: Failed to create the VirtualBox object!
VBoxManage.exe: error: Code CO_E_SERVER_EXEC_FAILURE (0x80080005) - Server execution failed (extended info not available)
VBoxManage.exe: error: Most likely, the VirtualBox COM server is not running or failed to start.

Taken from the forum post :

C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage hostonlyif remove "VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter"
0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%

C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage hostonlyif create
0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%
Interface 'VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter' was successfully created

C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage list -l hostonlyifs
Name:            VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
GUID:            58abe14a-3f99-40cf-9cdb-c1cb61be1373
DHCP:            Disabled
IPAddress:       192.168.74.1
NetworkMask:     255.255.255.0
IPV6Address:     fe80:0000:0000:0000:34a4:84d0:99c9:97fa
IPV6NetworkMaskPrefixLength: 64
HardwareAddress: 08:00:27:00:a0:1d
MediumType:      Ethernet
Status:          Up
VBoxNetworkName: HostInterfaceNetworking-VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter


C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage hostonlyif ipconfig "VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter" --ip 172.17.101

C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage list -l hostonlyifs
Name:            VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
GUID:            58abe14a-3f99-40cf-9cdb-c1cb61be1373
DHCP:            Disabled
IPAddress:       172.17.101.143
NetworkMask:     255.255.0.0
IPV6Address:     fe80:0000:0000:0000:34a4:84d0:99c9:97fa
IPV6NetworkMaskPrefixLength: 64
HardwareAddress: 08:00:27:00:a0:1d
MediumType:      Ethernet
Status:          Up
VBoxNetworkName: HostInterfaceNetworking-VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter


C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage hostonlyif remove "VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter"
0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%

C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage hostonlyif create
0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%
Interface 'VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter' was successfully created

C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage list -l hostonlyifs
VBoxManage.exe: error: Failed to create the VirtualBox object!
VBoxManage.exe: error: Code CO_E_SERVER_EXEC_FAILURE (0x80080005) - Server execution failed (extended info not available)
VBoxManage.exe: error: Most likely, the VirtualBox COM server is not running or failed to start.

c:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>Vboxmanage hostonlyif remove "VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter"
0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%

c:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage hostonlyif create
0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%
Interface 'VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter' was successfully created

c:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage list -l hostonlyifs
Name:            VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
GUID:            a5f0012b-7729-4d31-8d4a-744f67e13797
DHCP:            Disabled
IPAddress:       192.168.123.1
NetworkMask:     255.255.255.0
IPV6Address:     fe80:0000:0000:0000:dc5b:cdf6:ea70:c8a2
IPV6NetworkMaskPrefixLength: 64
HardwareAddress: 08:00:27:00:94:7b
MediumType:      Ethernet
Status:          Up
VBoxNetworkName: HostInterfaceNetworking-VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter


c:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage hostonlyif ipconfig "VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter" --ip 172.17.101.143 --netmask 255.255.0.0

c:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage list -l hostonlyifs
VBoxManage.exe: error: Failed to create the VirtualBox object!
VBoxManage.exe: error: Code CO_E_SERVER_EXEC_FAILURE (0x80080005) - Server execution failed (extended info not available)
VBoxManage.exe: error: Most likely, the VirtualBox COM server is not running or failed to start.

c:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration
--snip--
Ethernet adapter VirtualBox Host-Only Network:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::dc5b:cdf6:ea70:c8a2%25
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 172.17.101.143
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
--snip--

Again, this problem is very intermittent.

4.2.4 & 4.2.6 currently broken.

[rezroo]

It has happened twice now on my machine. The first time I lost hostonlyif 1 through 5 after an Vbox upgrade - searched a while for a solution, but gave up and created new ones "VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #6" through #12. That was more than 6 months ago.

Last week I noticed that my host only interfaces were gone again. Not sure on which upgrade, but I was on a 5.0 version. Upgraded to the latest, and some cleanup and reboots, and the problem is still there. Did not try an uninstall and reinstall because that didn't help the last time.

The current state is as follows:

I can create and delete host only interfaces, but the starting number is "VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #13" "VBoxManage.exe list -l bridgedifs" returns a list with all my lost host only interfaces - but I cannot find a command to delete the bridged interfaces. I can find these in the windows registry by searching the GUID, and also by name in Computer/HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/Setup/Upgrade/NetworkDriveBackup/Control/Class but hesitate to mess with the registry manually, because there are too many references to clean up by hand. Searched for a powershell utility that could clean and free them up, but didn't find one. Looking for help. Partial output of "VBoxManage.exe list -l bridgedifs" looks like this - as you can see by the name they used to all be host only ifs:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> VBoxManage.exe list -l bridgedifs

Name: VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #8 GUID: ef9a148d-dbbd-4eac-a072-bae5f0aae49b DHCP: Disabled IPAddress: 0.0.0.0 NetworkMask: 0.0.0.0 IPV6Address: IPV6NetworkMaskPrefixLength: 0 HardwareAddress: 00:00:00:00:00:00 MediumType: Ethernet Status: Down VBoxNetworkName: HostInterfaceNetworking-VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #8

Name: VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #3 GUID: 873d770d-328c-4af6-a0e8-900433a03cf6 DHCP: Disabled IPAddress: 0.0.0.0 NetworkMask: 0.0.0.0 IPV6Address: IPV6NetworkMaskPrefixLength: 0 HardwareAddress: 00:00:00:00:00:00 MediumType: Ethernet Status: Down VBoxNetworkName: HostInterfaceNetworking-VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #3

Name: Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter GUID: a35fb3ad-bb85-4bfc-b9c1-05ce81d512cb DHCP: Disabled IPAddress: 0.0.0.0 NetworkMask: 0.0.0.0 IPV6Address: IPV6NetworkMaskPrefixLength: 0 HardwareAddress: 00:00:00:00:00:00 MediumType: Ethernet Status: Down VBoxNetworkName: HostInterfaceNetworking-Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter

Name: VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #10 GUID: 1e88234f-d548-4b03-a2c2-b7c73f1016b1 DHCP: Disabled IPAddress: 0.0.0.0 NetworkMask: 0.0.0.0 IPV6Address: IPV6NetworkMaskPrefixLength: 0 HardwareAddress: 00:00:00:00:00:00 MediumType: Ethernet Status: Down VBoxNetworkName: HostInterfaceNetworking-VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #10

Name: VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #6 GUID: fed303cd-386b-4f60-8419-1c71b53fa90a DHCP: Disabled IPAddress: 0.0.0.0 NetworkMask: 0.0.0.0 IPV6Address: IPV6NetworkMaskPrefixLength: 0 HardwareAddress: 00:00:00:00:00:00 MediumType: Ethernet Status: Down VBoxNetworkName: HostInterfaceNetworking-VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #6

Name: VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #2 GUID: f6d1349b-82f4-4ce2-ae42-e7fb19f7fdf4 DHCP: Disabled IPAddress: 0.0.0.0 NetworkMask: 0.0.0.0 IPV6Address: IPV6NetworkMaskPrefixLength: 0 HardwareAddress: 00:00:00:00:00:00 MediumType: Ethernet Status: Down VBoxNetworkName: HostInterfaceNetworking-VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #2