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Configuring the vRack on your dedicated servers

Stephanie R.
Updated

Learn how to configure the vRack on two or more dedicated servers.

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

 

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
  • A private IP address range of your choice

OVHcloud Control Panel Access

  • Direct link: vRack
  • Navigation path: Bare Metal Cloud > Network > vRack Private Network

NOTE: This feature might be unavailable or limited on servers of the Eco product line.

Please visit our comparison page for more information.

 

Instructions

Step 1: Ordering the vRack

Once you are connected to the 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 set up in your account.

DS_network_configure-vrack01.png

 

Step 2: Adding your servers to the vRack

Using the Network menu

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.

DS_network_configure-vrack02.png

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.

DS_network_configure-vrack03.png

Using the Dedicated servers menu

Alternatively, from the OVHcloud Control Panel:

  1. Select Bare Metal Cloud from the top navigation bar.
  2. From the left-side menu, click Dedicated servers and choose your server.
  3. Select the Network interfaces tab.
  4. Locate the Private interface, click the more options ... button to the right of it, and select Attach a vRack private interface.

DS_network_configure-vrack04.5a***.png

In the pop-up window, select ▼ the vRack network you wish to attach, and then click Attach.

DS_network_configure-vrack04.5b*.png

Navigate to the OVHcloud API and login.

  1. List your vRack service(s):

    GET /vrack

  2. Find services that can be attached to vRack:

    GET /vrack/{serviceName}/eligibleServices

  3. Attach your dedicated server to the vRack:

    POST /vrack/{serviceName}/dedicatedServerInterface

    Repeat this step for each service you wish to attach to the vRack.

  4. Verify that your server is attached:

    GET /vrack/{serviceName}/dedicatedServerInterfaceDetails

 

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 an RDP session (for Windows). The examples below presume you are logged in as a user with elevated permissions (Administrator/sudo).

Concerning different distribution releases, please note that the proper procedure to configure your network interface as well as the file names may have been subject to change. We recommend consulting the manuals and knowledge resources of the respective OS versions if you experience any issues.

For this example, the configuration details below will have the IP address range 192.168.0.0/16 (Subnet mask: 255.255.0.0).

You can use any private IP range of your choice and any address within that range.

 

Identifying the vRack interface

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(es) of the Private interface.

If there are two private MAC addresses, you will want to use the one with the lowest alphanumeric value.

DS_network_configure-vrack04**.png

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 MAC address to replace NETWORK_INTERFACE in the configurations below (example: eth1).

link ether 08:00:00:ef:0e:38

 

Configuration examples

Click the tab that corresponds to your distribution.

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.

sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces.d/50-cloud-init

Add the following lines to the existing configuration, replace NETWORK_INTERFACE, IP_ADDRESS and NETMASK with your own values:

auto NETWORK_INTERFACE
iface NETWORK_INTERFACE inet static
    address IP_ADDRESS
    netmask NETMASK

Example:

Debian 11 config example.png

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

Restart the networking service to apply the configuration:

sudo 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.

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.

sudo nano /etc/netplan/50-cloud-init.yaml

Add the following lines to the existing configuration after the line version: 2. Replace NETWORK_INTERFACEand IP_ADDRESS/PREFIX with your own valueS.

    ethernets:
        NETWORK_INTERFACE:
            dhcp4: false
            addresses:
              - IP_ADDRESS/PREFIX

Example:

Ubuntu config example.png

NOTE: It is important to respect the alignment of each element in yaml files as represented in the example above. Do not use the tab key to create your spacing. Only the space key is needed.

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

Apply the configuration:

sudo 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.

Once you have identified your private network interface, use the following command to create a network configuration file.

Replace NETWORK_INTERFACE with your own value.

sudo touch /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-NETWORK_INTERFACE

For example, if the private interface is named eth1, we have the following:

sudo touch /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1

Next, use a text editor of your choice to edit this file.

sudo nano /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1

Add these lines, replacing NETWORK_INTERFACE, IP_ADDRESS and NETMASK with your own values:

DEVICE=NETWORK_INTERFACE
BOOTPROTO=static
IPADDR=IP_ADDRESS
NETMASK=NETMASK
ONBOOT=yes
TYPE=Ethernet

Example

CentOS config example.png

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

Restart the networking service to apply the changes:

sudo 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.

Once you have identified the name of your private interface (as explained here), verify that is it connected. In our example, our interface is called eno2:

nmcli device status

DEVICE           TYPE      STATE                   CONNECTION
eno1             ethernet  connected               cloud-init eno1
lo               loopback  connected (externally)  lo
eno2             ethernet  disconnected            --

If the STATE of the DEVICE appears as disconnected, it must be connected before configuring the IP.

When adding an ethernet connection, we have to create a configuration profile which we then assign to a device.

Run the following command, replacing INTERFACE_NAME and CONNECTION_NAME with your own values.

In our example, we named our configuration profile private-interface.

nmcli connection add type ethernet con-name CONNECTION_NAME ifname INTERFACE_NAME

Example:

nmcli connection add type ethernet con-name private-interface ifname eno2

Check that the interface has been connected correctly:

nmcli device status

DEVICE           TYPE      STATE                   CONNECTION
eno1             ethernet  connected               cloud-init eno1
eno2             ethernet  connected               private-interface
lo               loopback  connected (externally)  lo

Once this is done, a new configuration file named xxxxxxxxxx.nmconnection will be created in the folder /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections.

[user@server ~]$ cd /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections
[user@server system-connections]$ ls
cloud-init-eno1.nmconnection  private-interface.nmconnection

You can then edit this file using the nmcli handler, replacing IP_ADDRESS, PREFIX and CONNECTION_NAME with your own values.

  • Add your IP:

    nmcli connection modify CONNECTION_NAME IPv4.address IP_ADDRESS/PREFIX

    Example:

    nmcli connection modify private-interface IPv4.address 192.168.0.1/16

  • Change the configuration from auto to manual:

    sudo nmcli connection modify CONNECTION_NAME IPv4.method manual

    Example:

    sudo nmcli connection modify private-interface IPv4.method manual

  • Make the configuration persistent:

    sudo nmcli con mod CONNECTION_NAME connection.autoconnect true

    Example:

    sudo nmcli con mod private-interface connection.autoconnect true

Reboot your network with the following command:

sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

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.

DS_network_configure-vrack05.png

Click on Network and Internet.

DS_network_configure-vrack06.png

Open Network and Sharing Center.

DS_network_configure-vrack07.png

Click on Change Adapter Settings.

DS_network_configure-vrack08.png

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

Note that in our example Ethernet 2 is the interface used for the vRack. However, the vRack NIC may be a different interface in your configuration. The correct one to select will be the interface that does not have the server's main IP address or has a self-assigned IP.

DS_network_configure-vrack09.png

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

DS_network_configure-vrack10.png

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.

DS_network_configure-vrack11.png

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

For more information and tutorials, please see our other Dedicated Servers support guides or explore the guides for other OVHcloud products and services.

Article Contributor(s):

  • Suhail R
  • Ashley Osei

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