Builtin DHCP server does not pick up setting update once started

[SiemKorteweg]

I have several hosts that I want to connect with each other without access to the outside world. So all hosts use host-only networking. One of the hosts provides PXE and DHCP, so I went to File -> Preferences -> Network and edited the settings for the host-only networking. In the tab of the DHCP Server I disabled the DHCP server. Then I started my management server (fixed IP address in the proper range), configured DHCP with a range outside the default range for host-only and started one of the client hosts. PXE went well and the OS was installed. When the client host requested an IP-address, it was served with an address from the builtin DHCP server although I disabled this server. Stopping all clients and restarting VirtualBox did not solve this. After a reboot of the host system, the DHCP server was truly disabled and the client was served with an address from my management server.

[Trevor Tolk]

I have this exact same issue. Vbox 3.14 on Windows Vista 32bit Host.

[Trevor Tolk]

There should be some way to restart networking on the windows host. In linux your can restart - "sudo /etc/init.d/vboxnet restart" (although I think you need the open source edition).

[misha]

Just to make sure I understand you correctly: the "several hosts" that you want to connect w/o access to the outside world are actually "guest OSes" running in VMs you launch, right?

The reason you might see the issue is that VBox "builtin" DHCP server does not pick up its settings update in case it is already running, which seems to be your case.
I.e. the builtin DHCP server starts once any VM using is started and gets terminated only on VBoxSVC exit.

I'll update the bug summary to better reflect the issue. Meanwhile as a workaround for your case, in case you're sure that the given DHCP server (VBoxNetDHCP process) is not used by any VM, you could try killing it e.g. via task manager on windows.
Note: there is a distinct instance of VBoxNEtDHCP process for each intnet(hostif) name, so make sure you kill the proper one by examining the command line args each VBoxNetDHCP process was launched with, which again could be done via task manager on windows hosts.

[UncommonModulation]

I just spent almost an hour figuring this out after I changed the settings. The VirtualBox Manager GUI and VBoxManage dhcpserver command should tell you that it is necessary to kill any running VBoxNetDHCP processes in order for the settings to take effect on current interfaces. Ideally once there are no running guests using the DHCP server that was changed, VirtualBox would kill and restart the VBoxNetDHCP processes for you.

Possibly helpful notes with Windows hosts:

• When using the Task Manager, if you do not want to kill all the VBoxNetDHCP processes, you can use the Task Manager's View -> Select Columns... to show the command lines and kill those with the interface you need updated.
• If you are reluctant to use the Task Manager, logging out and back in is sufficient (full reboot not necessary)

[skut03422]

As of v5.0.20, the problem still persists.

On (global) network configuration changes, VB takes care of updating the virtual ethernet adapters, but doesn't reset the DHCP service(s) as well.

[gh28dfghhg]

Just ran into this. 10 years and no response.