8VBoxManage reference
•If you use internal networking for a virtual network adapter of a virtual ma- chine, use VBoxManage dhcpserver add --netname <network_name>, where <network_name> is the same network name you used with VBoxManage modifyvm <vmname> --intnet<X> <network_name>.
•If you use host-only networking for a virtual network adapter of a virtual ma- chine, use VBoxManage dhcpserver add --ifname <hostonly_if_name> instead, where <hostonly_if_name> is the same host-only interface name you used with VBoxManage modifyvm <vmname> --hostonlyadapter<X> <hostonly_if_name>.
Alternatively, you can also use the –netname option as with internal net- works if you know the host-only network’s name; you can see the names with VBoxManage list hostonlyifs (see chapter 8.1, VBoxManage list, page 111 above).
The following additional parameters are required when first adding a DHCP server:
•With --ip, specify the IP address of the DHCP server itself.
•With --netmask, specify the netmask of the network.
•With --lowerip and --upperip, you can specify the lowest and highest IP address, respectively, that the DHCP server will hand out to clients.
Finally, you must specify --enable or the the DHCP server will be created in the disabled state, doing nothing.
After this, VirtualBox will automatically start the DHCP server for given internal or host-only network as soon as the first virtual machine which uses that network is started.
Reversely, use VBoxManage dhcpserver remove with the given --netname <network_name> or --ifname <hostonly_if_name> to remove the DHCP server again for the given internal or host-only network.
To modify the settings of a DHCP server created earlier with VBoxManage dhcpserver add, you can use VBoxManage dhcpserver modify for a given network or host-only interface name.
