Configuring the network on ESXi on the High Grade & SCALE ranges

Last updated 9th May 2022

Objective

On the High Grade & SCALE ranges, it is not possible to manage Additional IPs in bridged mode (via virtual MACs). It is therefore necessary to configure Additional IPs in routed mode or via the vRack.

This guide explains how to configure the network on VMware ESXi.

Requirements

• A public block of IP addresses in your account, with a minimum of four addresses. The block must be pointed to the vRack.
• Your chosen private IP address range.
• A vRack compatible dedicated server.
• A vRack service activated in your account.
• Access to the OVHcloud Control Panel.

Instructions

Additional IP via vRack

First, add your public block of IP addresses to the vRack. To do so, go to the Bare Metal Cloud section of your OVHcloud Control Panel and open the vRack menu.

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

Original configuration

In this example:

• the public interfaces are vmnic2 and vmnic3;
• the private interfaces are on vmnic0 and vmnic1.

A first vSwitch exists but only has a vmnic2 interface.

Explanations

You need to:

• create the aggregate on the public vSwitch
• create the vSwitch for the vRack
• create a port group
• create VMs using the new port group as the network interface.

Configure ESXi

Creating the aggregate in LACP mode on the vSwitch that carries the public interfaces

[root@localhost:~] esxcli network vswitch standard uplink add --uplink-name=vmnic3 --vswitch-name=vSwitch0
[root@localhost:~] esxcli network vswitch standard policy failover set -l iphash -v vSwitch0

Output:

Creating vSwitch and vRack aggregation on private interfaces

[root@localhost:~] esxcli network vswitch standard add --vswitch-name=vRackvSwitch
[root@localhost:~] esxcli network vswitch standard uplink add --uplink-name=vmnic0 --vswitch-name=vRackvSwitch
[root@localhost:~] esxcli network vswitch standard uplink add --uplink-name=vmnic1 --vswitch-name=vRackvSwitch
[root@localhost:~] esxcli network vswitch standard policy failover set -l iphash -v vRackvSwitch
[root@localhost:~] 

Output:

VM configuration

The VMs must have the new portgroupvRackvSwitch port group in the network interface.

Creating a port group for the new “vRackvSwitch” vSwitch

[root@localhost:~] esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup add --portgroup-name=portgroupvRackvSwitch --vswitch-name=vRackvSwitch

Configure a usable IP address

In the case of vRack, the first address and the last two addresses in a given IP block are always reserved for the network address, its gateway and its broadcast address respectively. This means that the first usable address is the second address in the block, as shown below:

46.105.135.96 # Reserved: network address
46.105.135.97 # First usable IP
46.105.135.98
46.105.135.99
46.105.135.100
46.105.135.101
46.105.135.102
46.105.135.103
46.105.135.104
46.105.135.105
46.105.135.106
46.105.135.107
46.105.135.108
46.105.135.109 # Last usable IP
46.105.135.110 # Reserved: network gateway
46.105.135.111 # Reserved: network broadcast

To configure the first usable IP address, you must edit the network configuration file as shown below. In this example, we use a subnet mask of 255.255.255.240.

Configuration example of a client VM on Debian

Content of the file /etc/network/interfaces:

auto lo ens18
iface lo inet loopback
iface ens18 inet static
    address 46.105.135.97
    netmask 255.255.255.240
    gateway 46.105.135.110

Go further

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