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I have a server hosting a number of guest VMs. The server's VMs are controlled via VSphere.

Disregarding all VMs, except for one, brand new, SUSE 10 VM, consider this question:

I want to be able to access this VM (which I will call groundhog) from anywhere in the network. I might want to even access this VM from outside of the network. I only want SSH access to the VM. What are all the steps necessary to accomplish this goal?

The VM Server sits on a huge corporate network, so I want to take the simplest approach to this as possible, with as little reconfiguring of the network as possible.

I do have access to the VM Server (not ssh).

I have looked around but all the answers that I found require that the VM be in some sort of half-networked state already. If anyone has a set of steps that they would do immediately following the installation of a new VM to make that machine available to the network, then please post them here.

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Whenever you want to ask a question about VMs, first expand VM to "Virtual Machine", then remove the word "Virtual" from your question. Often the answer will become immediately apparent... –  voretaq7 Feb 22 '12 at 21:19
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2 Answers

Assign it an IP like you would any server on the network. Open port 22 (SSH) on any firewalls between the host and the networks that you'd like to access it from. Open port 22 on the SUSE firewall, which I assume is iptables.

There's no trickery here. Just open the ports like you would for a physical server. If this doesn't work, then there are probably other things in your environment that you have neglected to mention.

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Ok so I thought I was doing something wrong because I was only checking ssh connection to the box. I can ping the box from the same domain, I cannot ssh into the box from the same domain, however, the box can ssh to itself through the loopback. SSHD is enabled. I'm pretty sure this means that SSH is working and the box is on the network if I can ping it. I just still can't ssh from outside the box. –  Grav3mind Feb 24 '12 at 15:58
@Grav3mind Which points to some firewall somewhere blocking SSH. –  MDMarra Feb 24 '12 at 16:21
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There are two steps here: getting your machine on the network, and making it accessible.

The first step is the only thing distinguishing a virtual machine from a physical one: you need to have properly configured networking on the host and on the VM, and then you need the virtual operating system to recognize the virtual network card (that's what VMware Tools are for).

Once this is done, the virtual machine is exactly like any other physical machine: give it an IP address, open its SSH port (22) in iptables, and any other machine on the same network will be able to connect to it.

What about other networks? Well, this is in the hands of the routers and/or firewalls you have around there. If f.e. you want to make that machine accessible from the Internet, then you'll really need to talk to your network administrator.

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