Learn how to configure a block of public IP addresses for use with the vRack.
As well as private IP addressing, the vRack also allows you to route public IP traffic through your server’s vRack port using a public IP address block.
Additional IP blocks purchased in the Singapore and Mumbai (YNM) data centers are not supported by vRack services.
Requirements
- A public block of IP addresses in your account, with a minimum of four addresses
- Your chosen private IP address range
- A vRack-compatible server
- A vRack service activated in your account
- Access to the OVHcloud Control Panel
NOTE: This feature might be unavailable or limited on servers of the Eco product line.
Instructions
For example purposes, we'll be using an IP block of 46.105.135.96/28 and eth1 for the secondary network interface, which is dedicated to the vRack.
Also, the network configuration file we refer to is located in /etc/network/interfaces. The equivalent file on your server may be located somewhere else, depending on your operating system. The file content may also be different. If you encounter any difficulties, please refer to the official documentation for your distribution.
Add the IP block to the vRack
NOTE: Once an IP block is added to the vRack, it is no longer attached to a physical server.
This setup allows you to configure IPs of the same block on multiple servers, provided that these servers are all in the same vRack as the IP block. The IP block must have at least two usable IPs or more for this to be possible.
In your OVHcloud Control Panel, go to the Bare Metal Cloud section and click on Network. Next, open the vRack menu.
Select your vRack from the list to display the list of eligible services. Click the IP block you wish to add to the vRack and click on the Add button.
Configure a usable IP address
NOTE: The IP blocks must be configured on the private interface.
For vRack purposes, the first, penultimate, and last addresses in any given IP block are always reserved for the network address, network gateway, and network broadcast, respectively. This means that the first usable address is the second address in the block, as shown in the example below:
To configure the first usable IP address, we need to edit the network configuration file, as shown below. We will also need to use a subnet mask (255.255.255.240).
The subnet mask we've used in our example is appropriate for our IP block. Your subnet mask may differ depending on the size of your block. When you purchase your IP block, you’ll receive an email telling you which subnet mask to use.
Configure your VM
Open the network configuration file:
Example output:
Create a new IP routing table
First, we need to download and install iproute2, which is a package that will enable us to manually configure IP routing on the server.
Establish an SSH connection to your server and run the following command from the command line. This will download and install iproute2.
Next, we need to create a new IP route for the vRack. We will be adding a new traffic rule by amending the file, as shown below:
Amend the network configuration file
/etc/network/interfaces. The equivalent file on your server may be located somewhere else, depending on your operating system.Finally, we need to amend the network configuration file to account for the new traffic rule and route the vRack traffic through the network gateway address of 46.105.135.110.
Now reboot your server to apply the changes or alternatively enable simply the new network interface:
CentOS 6/7
Create the file for the secondary network interface
First we can copy and use the configuration being used for the primary network interface and adjust it as per our needs:
Then we access to the new file:
And we define the IP settings:
Create a new IP routing table
Next, we need to create a new IP route for the vRack. We'll be adding a new traffic rule by amending the file, as shown below:
Next, create the file needed to apply the new rules:
And paste the following content (please remember to replace our variables with your own values):
Amend the network configuration file
Finally, we need to amend the network configuration file to account for the new traffic rule and route the vRack traffic through the network gateway address of 46.105.135.110.
We can achieve it by editing the following file in order to add persistent and static routes:
Paste the following content (please remember to replace our variables with your own values):
Now reboot your server to apply the changes or alternatively enable simply the new network interface:
Windows Server 2012/2016
Step 1: Check and configure the secondary network interface
First we must access to the new network interface information:
Then we must check the properties:
Step 2: IP Configuration
We must select the Use the following IP address option:
And we can finally define the IP information:
Step 3: Rebooting the network interface
First we do the disabling process
Then we do the enabling process:
Troubleshooting
If you are unable to establish a connection from your VM or server to the private network, please send us a ticket from your control panel with the following:
- IP source and IP destination
- Ifconfig -a or ipconfig /all from both servers or VMs (setup network configuration interface)
- ping in both ways
- arp -a
- Routing table
Please, include the results from above into your ticket.
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.