= Configure the hda =
First, configure your amahi install in the usual way at the [http://www.amahi.org/user control panel]. You must use the IP address of the VirtualBox "Host only" interface as your gateway(in my case, 192.168.56.1). If you have already have Amahi on your network, you might wish to consider changing the home domain to something other than home.com. Make a note of the install code indicated.
= Create the VM =
ONBOOT=yes
Now execute (still as root)we need to reconfigure the hda to ensure that it picks up the new network config, using the command hda-change-gw and the IP address of the host-only network. In my case: hda-change-gw 192.168.56.1 Now reboot. = Test it =Wait until the VM comes back up and open a web browser. Browse to http://192.168.56.1/ should put up the usual Amahi log-in page. If not, something's gone wrong. You can also connect via ssh from the host if you don't want to use the VirtualBox console. Note that the DNS & DHCP will not be visible from the host system unless you alter the host system config. However, other VMs connected to the same host-only network will be able to use these services, including PXE-booting.