Port forwarding in Mountain Lion

ipfwmac-osxvirtual-machines

This HAS to be something that can be done. I've searched and found many answers that claim to do what I want, but I can't seem to put it together. So…

I am running a Linux virtual machine under Mountain Lion. The VM runs Apache. I need to redirect all traffic that arrives on the host's port 80 to the guest's port 80. I can reach the VM's web site from the host using:
http://192.168.100.2/

I can also reach the default Mountain Lion Apache server from other machines on the local network using:
http://10.0.42.22/

(Proving that port 80 is open on the host. And yes, I have tried shutting off the Mac OS installation of Apache to no avail)

I need for other machines on the network to be able to reach the server that is running under the VM by the latter address (http://10.0.42.22/).

I have tried ipfw from the host:

ipfw add 100 forward 192.168.100.2,80 ip from any to any 80 in

After I do that, machines on the local network timeout trying to reach http://10.0.42.22/ instead of reaching the Mac OS "It Works!" screen, which tells me that "something" has happened, but unfortunately, that something isn't that forwarding to the guest is working.

I also tried adding to /etc/pf.conf:

rdr on en1 inet proto tcp from any to any port 80 -> 192.168.100.2 port 80

Followed by:

pfctl -f /etc/pf.conf

Which results in this output:

No ALTQ support in kernel
ALTQ related functions disabled

Which is the same thing I get when reloading pfctl with the default configuration. This has no affect (machines on the local network receive the Mac OS Apache default "It Works!" screen). I have also tried using both of the above together, with the results being the same as using only the ipfw trick.

I have read about and tried many combinations of ipfw and pfctl, but none got any different results or seem more correct than what I mention above.

I've done this exact thing for nearly two decades with BSD and various flavors of Linux as the host, but I just can't seem to get it to work with a Mac OS host. I'm hoping that I overlooked something stupid and/or simple and that somebody out there can point out what it is.

Best Answer

Have you tried shutting down the Mountain Lion Apache instance and setting up an ssh tunnel e.g. 

sudo bash
nohup ssh -L 80:192.168.100.2:80 -N -i ~someUser/.ssh/id_dsa someUser@192.168.100.2 &

Or, alternitively using the Mountain Lion Apache instance to reverse proxy requests to the VM e.g.

ProxyRequests Off
ProxyPass        /  http://192.168.100.2/
ProxyPassReverse /  http://192.168.100.2/
<Proxy *>
  Order Deny,Allow
  Allow from all
</Proxy>

Stick the above in your: /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf and restart Apache.

Related Topic