How to SSH into Vmware player/Virtual Box guest Linux OS remotely(host OS is Window 10)

All credits go to https://hitchhikingtheweb.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/portforwarding-with-vmware-player-and-nat/

Virtual Box has a quite friendly UI to do so, just go to Settings-> Network -> Adapter<n> , click “Port Forwarding”. Configure a NAT rule, for instance:

name: external SSH incoming
protocol: TCP
Host IP: <Your Windows public IP>
Host port: The port the remote SSH connects to, for instance, 2244
Guest IP: The IP of your guest OS
Guest Port: it’s TCP 22 for SSH

That’s it for Virtual Box. Now, you can SSH to your VirtualBox Guest VM from remote host using the command:

ssh -p 2244 <username>@<your windows 10 IP>

But Vmware Player is a bit not friendly enough. To achieve the same,

1. Find this file C:\ProgramData\VMware\vmnetnat.conf
2. Open and edit it with Administrator permission
3. In [incomingtcp] section, add one line:
   2244 = <your Guest OS IP>:22
4. Save the file
5. Run Windows command to restart vmware NAT service:
   net stop “VMWare NAT Service”
   net start “VMWare NAT Service”

Now, you can SSH into your Guest OS from your Host OS with the command:

ssh -p 2244 <username>@localhost

However, you cannot SSH to the Guest OS from another host yet, it’s because the Windows Firewall rules.

Open Control Panel -> Windows Defender Firewall -> Advanced settings. New an ‘Inbound Rules’.

1. Select ‘Port’ as rule type. Next
2. Select TCP and set the port “2244”
3. Save

Now, you can SSH to your Guest OS on Win 10 from another host, for instance:

ssh -p 2244 <username>@<your win10 IP>