How to Connect a VM to the Internet Using VMware ESXi

Canonical, the developer of Ubuntu, implemented the use of Netplan for easy-to-use network configuration as of version 17.x.

To configure the network interface, open the 01-netcfg.yaml file in a text editor of your choice using the following command:

$ sudo vi /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml

Edit the file to make it appear as follows:

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system

# For more information, see netplan(5).

network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
          ens160:
                  dhcp4: no
                  dhcp6: no
                  addresses: [192.0.2.1/32]
                  gateway4: 203.0.113.254
                  nameservers:
                          addresses: [208.67.222.222,208.67.220.220]
                  routes:
                  - to: 203.0.113.254/32
                    via: 0.0.0.0
                    scope: link

In this file, replace the following pieces of information as instructed:

1. If you replace the VMXNET3 NIC with another one, your NIC may use a different naming convention. If it does, replace "ens160" in the file with the name of your interface. If you don't know the name of your interface, you can find it using the following command:

$ ip add

2. Next to "addresses", replace "192.0.2.1" with the additional IP to which you have added the vMAC in the OVHcloud Control Panel plus the subnet you wish to use in CIDR notation.

3. Next to "gateway4" and in the "routes" section, replace the "203.0.113" with the first three octets of your Dedicated Server's IP address with a final octet of "254". For instance, if your Dedicated Server IP was 1.2.3.4, you would use 1.2.3.254 as your gateway.

4. The DNS name server addresses listed are from OpenDNS. Feel free to use other name servers if you choose.

Now apply the Netplan settings with the following command:

$ sudo netplan apply

To test that the VM is fully connected to the Internet, ping example.com. If you get a response, you are good to go. If you do not, restart your VM and attempt the ping again.

In this step, we will be configuring our interface settings. To do this, you must first open your interface configuration file. Do so in a text editor of your choice using the following command:

$ sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces

Edit the interfaces file to make it appear as follows:

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

source /etc/network/interfaces.d/*

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
auto ens160
iface ens160 inet static
address 192.0.2.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 203.0.113.254
dns-nameservers 208.67.222.222 208.67.220.220

In this file, replace the following pieces of information as instructed:

1. If you don't know the name of your interface, you can find it using the following command:

$ ip add

2. Next to "address", replace "192.0.2.1" with the additional IP to which you have added the vMAC in the OVHcloud Control Panel.

3. Next to "gateway", replace the "203.0.113" with the first three octets of your Dedicated Server's IP address with a final octet of "254". For instance, if your Dedicated Server IP was 1.2.3.4, you would use 1.2.3.254 as your gateway.

4. The DNS name servers listed are from OpenDNS. Feel free to use other name servers if you choose.

Now you will need to bring your NIC online. To do so, enter the following command:

$ sudo ip link set ens160 up

Finally, restart your networking service using the following command:

$ sudo systemctl restart networking

To test that the VM is fully connected to the Internet, ping example.com. If you get a response, you are good to go. If you do not, restart your VM and attempt the ping again.

In this step, we will be configuring our interface settings. To do this, first navigate to the network-scripts directory using the following command:

$ cd /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts

Use the ls command to view the content of the directory.

$ ls -al

Locate your interface file (e.g. ifcfg-ensXXX) and then open it in a text editor of your choice using the following command:

$ sudo vi ifcfg-ens192

Edit the interfaces file to make it appear as follows, changing only what is in red:

TYPE=Ethernet
PROXY_METHOD=none
BROWSER_ONLY=no
BOOTPROTO=none
DEFROUTE=yes
IPV4_FAILURE_FATAL=no
IPV6INIT=yes
IPV6_AUTOCONF=yes
IPV6_DEFROUTE=yes
IPV6_FAILURE_FATAL=no
IPV6_ADDR_GEN_MODE=stable-privacy
NAME=ens192
UUID=*DO NOT edit this field!*
DEVICE=ens192
ONBOOT=yes
IPADDR=192.0.2.1
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
GATEWAY=203.0.113.254
DNS1=208.67.222.222
DNS2=208.67.220.220

In this file, check/replace/add the following pieces of information as instructed:

1. For "IPADDR", replace "192.0.2.1" with the additional IP that you added a vMAC to in the OVHcloud Control Panel.
2. For "GATEWAY", replace the "203.0.113" with the first three octets of your Dedicated server's IP address with a final octet of "254". For instance, if your Dedicated server's IP was 1.2.3.4, you would use 1.2.3.254 as your gateway.

Next, enable the NIC by restarting the network service:

$ sudo systemctl restart network

To test that the VM is fully connected to the Internet, ping example.com. If you get a response, you are good to go. If you do not, restart your VM and attempt the ping again.

In this step, we will be configuring our interface settings. To do this, first navigate to the network-scripts directory using the following command:

$ cd /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts

Use the ls command to view the content of the directory.

$ ls -al

Locate your interface file (e.g. ifcfg-ethX) and then open it in a text editor of your choice using the following command:

$ sudo vi ifcfg-eth0

Edit the interfaces file to make it appear as follows, changing only what is in red:

DEVICE=eth0
HWADDR=*Verify this matches the vMAC created and assigned to the VM!*
TYPE=Ethernet
UUID=*DO NOT edit this field!*
ONBOOT=yes
NM_CONTROLLED=yes
BOOTPROTO=none
IPADDR=192.0.2.1
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
GATEWAY=203.0.113.254
DNS1=208.67.222.222
DNS2=208.67.220.220

In this file, check/replace/add the following pieces of information as instructed:

1. For "IPADDR", replace "192.0.2.1" with the additional IP that you added a vMAC to in the OVHcloud Control Panel.
2. For "GATEWAY", replace the "203.0.113" with the first three octets of your Dedicated server's IP address with a final octet of "254". For instance, if your Dedicated server's IP was 1.2.3.4, you would use 1.2.3.254 as your gateway.

Next, create a new file, route-eth0, in the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ directory and define the following default routes for the interface using the gateway we defined above:

$ sudo vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/route-eth0

203.0.113.254 dev eth0
default via 203.0.113.254 dev eth0

Lastly, enable the NIC by restarting the network service:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/network restart

To test that the VM is fully connected to the Internet, ping example.com. If you get a response, you are good to go. If you do not, restart your VM and attempt the ping again.

In this step, we will be configuring our interface settings. To do this, navigate to the Server Manager. From the left-hand column, click the Local Server option.

By default, the "Ethernet0" option will read, IPv4 address assigned by DHCP, IPv6 enabled. This is exactly what we want to change, so click on this text.

Next, right-click on Ethernet0 and select the Properties option from the drop-down menu. From the ensuing menu, double-click the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) option.

This will allow you to configure your interface to use the IP address, gateway, and DNS name servers of your choice. Configure it as follows:

In this file, replace the following pieces of information from the picture as instructed:

1. Next to "IP address", replace "203.0.113.32" with the additional IP to which you have added the vMAC in the OVHcloud Control Panel.

2. Next to "Subnet mask", replace "255.255.255.248" with the correct netmask depending on the size of the block of IPs you have purchased. For instance, if you are using a /28 block, put "240" in the last octet.

3. Next to "Default gateway", replace the "147.135.0.254" with the first three octets of your Dedicated Server's IP address with a final octet of "254".

4. The DNS nameservers listed are from OpenDNS. Feel free to use other name servers here, if you choose.

Click OK after making these changes. To test that the VM is fully connected to the Internet, ping example.com. If you get a response, you are good to go. If you do not, restart your VM and attempt the ping again.