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Configuring the vRack on Your Dedicated Servers

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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
  • access to the OVHcloud Control Panel
  • a private IP address range of your choice
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

Click each tab to view both methods.

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

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

 

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).

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.

 

For 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(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: eno2).

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

 

Configuration steps by OS

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.

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.

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
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:

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.

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.

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 check out our 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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