Access host machine from Windows Parallels guest VM

A

I use Parallels to virtualise my Windows development environment, for use on my MacBook Air
I created a fresh Windows VM, and wanted to keep it a little more lean than my previous version.

One of the things I wanted to do, is use the MongoDB installation on my host (mac) machine, within windows.
This would prevent me duplicating the MongoDB install, as well as the MongoDB data that I quite often work with on Mac and Windows

By default, when using Shared Networking, the hosts IP address is 10.211.55.2

So, I simply create an entry in my hosts file to point:

10.211.55.2    host

I can then use ‘host’ when connecting to MongoDB from my Windows vm

hosts-file-for-parallels-host-access