Configuring the vRack on your dedicated servers

Last updated 2nd May 2022

Objective

The OVHcloud vRack (virtual rack) allows multiple servers to be grouped together (regardless of number and physical location in our data centres) and connects them to a virtual switch within the same private network. Your servers can communicate privately and securely between each other, within a dedicated VLAN.

This guide explains how to configure the vRack on two or more dedicated servers.

Requirements

• A vRack service activated in your account
• Two or more dedicated servers (compatible with vRack)
• Administrative access (root) to the server via SSH or RDP
• Access to the OVHcloud Control Panel
• A private IP address range of your choice

Instructions

Step 1: Ordering the vRack

Once you are connected to your OVHcloud control panel, go to the Bare Metal Cloud menu and click on the Order button. Under this menu, click on vRack.

You will be redirected to another page to validate the order, it will take a few minutes for the vRack to be setup in your account.

Step 2: Adding your servers to the vRack

Once the vRack is activated in your account, go to the Bare Metal Cloud section of your OVHcloud Control Panel, click on Network and open the vRack menu.

Select your vRack from the list to display the list of eligible services. Click on each server you want to add to the vRack and then click the Add button.

Step 3: Configuring your network interfaces

The following sections contain the configurations for the most commonly used recent distributions/operating systems. The first step is always to log in to your server via SSH or a RDP session (for Windows). The examples below presume you are logged in as a user with elevated permissions (Administrator/sudo).

GNU/Linux configurations

The network interface names of your servers are not always the same. Whenever used in the following examples, replace NETWORK_INTERFACE with the appropriate interface name.

The sure way to verify the correct interface for the vRack is to check the tab Network interfaces of your server in the OVHcloud Control Panel. In the table at the bottom, take note of the MAC address which is also the Name of the Private interface.

Once connected to your server via SSH, you can list your network interfaces with the following command:

ip a

In the line that begins with link ether, you can verify that this interface matches the Private interface listed in your OVHcloud Control Panel. Use this interface name to replace NETWORK_INTERFACE in the configurations below (example: eno2).

link ether f0:00:00:ef:0e:f0

Debian

Using a text editor of your choice, open the network configuration file located in /etc/network/interfaces.d for editing. Here the file is called 50-cloud-init.

editor /etc/network/interfaces.d/50-cloud-init

Add the following lines:

auto NETWORK_INTERFACE
iface NETWORK_INTERFACE inet static
address 192.168.0.1
netmask 255.255.0.0

Save your changes to the config file and exit the editor.

Restart the networking service to apply the configuration:

systemctl restart networking

Repeat this process for your other server(s) and assign an unused IP address from your private range. Once you have done this, your servers will be able to communicate with each other on the private network.

Ubuntu

Using a text editor of your choice, open the network configuration file located in /etc/netplan/ for editing. Here the file is called 50-cloud-init.yaml.

editor /etc/netplan/50-cloud-init.yaml

Add the IP configuration to the existing one after the line ethernets:

    ethernets:
        NETWORK_INTERFACE:
            dhcp4: no
            addresses:
              - 192.168.0.1/16

Save your changes to the config file and exit the editor.

Apply the configuration:

netplan apply

Repeat this process for your other server(s) and assign an unused IP address from your private range. Once you have done this, your servers will be able to communicate with each other on the private network.

CentOS

Using a text editor of your choice, open the file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-NETWORK_INTERFACE.

editor /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-NETWORK_INTERFACE

Add these lines:

DEVICE=NETWORK_INTERFACE
BOOTPROTO=static
IPADDR=192.168.0.1
NETMASK=255.255.0.0
ONBOOT=yes
TYPE=Ethernet

Save your changes to the config file and exit the editor.

Restart the networking service to apply the changes:

systemctl restart networking

On CentOS 8 use this command:

systemctl restart NetworkManager.service

Repeat this process for your other server(s) and assign an unused IP address from your private range. Once you have done this, your servers will be able to communicate with each other on the private network.

Windows configuration

For example purposes, the following configurations will use the IP address range of 192.168.0.0/16 (Subnet mask: 255.255.0.0).

Log on to your Windows server via remote desktop and go to the Control Panel.

Click on Network and Internet.

Open Network and Sharing Center.

Click on Change Adapter Settings.

Right-click the secondary network interface and then click Properties.

Double-click Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4).

Click on Use the following IP address. Enter any IP address from your private range and the appropriate Subnet mask (255.255.0.0 in this example) into the corresponding fields.

Click on OK to save the changes and reboot your server to apply them.

Repeat this process for your other server(s) and assign an unused IP address from your private range. Once you have done this, your servers will be able to communicate with each other on the private network.

Go further

Join our community of users on https://community.ovh.com/en/.

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