I can't access a macOS ventura vm via port forwarding

C

CarlosE14

Bit poster
Good afternoon, I am using the trial of parallels desktop 18 for Mac Pro Edition (version 18.3.1 53614) on a host macOS Ventura version 13.4.1 running in Mac Studio with an Apple M1 Max chip.

Our intention is to test if Parallels meets the features we need before purchasing the license, we need to be able to create macOS virtual machines (Big Sur, Monterrey, and Ventura) and access them from outside the host.

At the moment we have created a VM with Ventura running on Parallels and we have configured the port forwarding to access from outside the host on a specific port, and this is not working for us.
On the host Mac, we have the firewall disabled and no port blocked, but we can't get this connection.

If we make the ssh connection through port 22 to the IP of the macOS VM, we access correctly, but when we try to make the connection through the host IP and the port configured for port forwarding, this connection is rejected, I share the commands:

connection to the exposed port and Host IP (localhost):
upload_2023-6-29_9-41-26.png

Parallels network configuration:
upload_2023-6-29_9-42-51.png

prlsrvctl net list:
upload_2023-6-29_9-44-48.png
 
Hello,
Please note that currently port forwarding is not supported on macOS hosted on Apple Silicon Mac.
As a work-around, kindly set your virtual machine to bridge mode by following the instruction in this article: https://kb.parallels.com/en/128519
Also, please note that there is a feature request to support port forwarding on macOS virtual machine hosted on Apple Silicon Mac.
We submitted, added your request to our Development team.
Once there is a response from them - whether it is a request for additional information, a workaround or a permanent fix - we will let you know.
Thank you.
 
Thanks for confirming my suspicion that port forwarding doesn't work on M1, I haven't found a site in Parallels that says it explicitly so if you could link it, I would appreciate it.

I have followed the documentation that you have provided me and unfortunately, it is not useful for me: https://kb.parallels.com/en/128519, so I am going to explain how I solved my issue, I hope it will be useful to other users who have this problem with port forwarding from outside the host.

  • There is a macOS M1 machine that is intended to virtualize different custom macOS boxes on demand
  • For this, Vagrant is used through the vagrant-parallels plugin
  • If I set up a virtual machine without Vagrant, the default network is shared, when changing it with the documentation you provided, it can be confirmed that said machine now is set to bridge, but the machine does not have internet access since it does not assign a value for Router inside the VM
  • If I start the virtual machine with Vagrant, it is initially set to shared until I change it to bridge, but Vagrant sets the network back to shared
# vagrant up --> The loading output shows a shared network
# vagrant halt
# prlctl list "macos13" -i | grep -E 'net' --> Only show shared
# cprlctl set "macos13" --device-set net0 --type bridge
# prlctl list "macos13" -i | grep -E 'net' --> Only show bridged
# vagrant up --> The loading output shows a shared network again
# prlctl list "macos13" -i | grep -E 'net' --> Only show shared
Click to expand...
  • That is, Vagrant overwrites the initial configuration of the machine once vagrant up is used
  • If the Vagrant file is modified with the following code, the VM starts with a shared, host-only, and bridged adapters
config.vm.network "forwarded_port", guest: 22, host: 43222
config.vm.network : private_network, type: "dhcp" (The : and private go together, it puts it as a smiley face in the preview and I don't know how to avoid it)
config.vm.network "public_network", bridge: "en0"
Click to expand...
  • Then, the vagrant up command shows:
default: Adapter 0: shared
default: Adapter 1: hostonly
default: Adapter 2: bridged
Click to expand...
  • With this configuration, a bridge network is established with which the VM can be accessed through vagrant ssh and ssh vagrant@vm_ip
  • Now, how to access this VM from outside the host without Parallels port forwarding functionality? Well, by establishing port forwarding in the system itself through
ssh -L {Host_public_IP}:{Host port}:{VM_IP}:{VM Port} -N 127.0.0.1
Click to expand...
  • For example (I don't put IPs since anyone works
ssh -L {Host_public_IP}:43222:{VM_IP}:22 -N 127.0.0.1
Click to expand...
  • This will create a permanent link as long as the command is not canceled and can be accessed via
ssh user@Host_public_IP -p 43222
Click to expand...

Not ideal, but allows you to connect to the VM from outside the host
 
As a note, in the Vagrantfile configuration, a port forwarding from 43222 to 22 is established, this is reflected in the Parallels configuration successfully (the port forwarding rule appears), but it does not work, so you have to use the ssh -L command to perform port forwarding from the host (so the same port is reused), in this second case, when performing a lsof order, the 43222 port appears in LISTEN mode
 
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