Creating a test lab subnet with VMSphere

[BigBoyLOL]

Hello and my apologies if I am in the wrong area for this discussion...

But, my problem is that my ESXi is connected to a private 10.0.x.x and my boss lady wants me to create a 10.240.x.x subnet in a virtual enviroment for testing. My boxes will be XP, 2008, and Win7 but I am having problems trying to get the 10.240.x.x hosts to get internet connectivity using the 10.0.x.x that the ESXi server is on. Is there a way to accomplish this task in making my hosts think they are connected properly to a 10.240 subnet but using the 10.0.x.x for it's connectivity? Any information of help would be greatly appreciated.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Welcome to the VMware Communities forums. Your post has been moved to the ESXi forum - http://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/vsphere/esxi.




Dave

VMware Communities User Moderator

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[James Bowling]

You will need to setup VLANs on your physical switch if you have a managed switch. At this point, you will then configure VLAN tagging on 2 separate PortGroups in the vSwitches. In order to use VLAN tagging you would want to setup your physical switch ports as trunks. For instance:

VLAN 10 - 10.0.0.0/16

VLAN 20 - 10.240.0.0/24

You would create two PortGroups on your vSwitch:

Production - VLAN ID 10

Test - VLAN ID 20

If this is not an option due to not having a managed switch then you will need to have two separate vSwitches each with an adapter or two connected to separate physical switches. Let us know what option you can do and we can help build the solution.

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[BigBoyLOL]

Ok thanks for the reply but, I am still stumped on what to do next.

I do have access to a managed physical switch but the trunks are allowing all VLANs to have access. Also, I have been reading a VM White Paper ( http://vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere-vnetwork-ds-migration-configuration-wp.pdf ) and my VSphere client compared to the pictures that the paper is using looks entirely different then what's on my Vsphere. Perhaps, I am failing because I am not using the right software to accomplish the task at hand? Is this because I need to incorporate vCenter with vSphere to gain the required options to setup vSwitching etc?

[James Bowling]

I do have access to a managed physical switch but the trunks are allowing all VLANs to have access.

First, what kind of switch is it? This will help with us being able to give you a more specific route.

Also, I have been reading a VM White Paper ( http://vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere-vnetwork-ds-migration-configuration-wp.pdf ) and my VSphere client compared to the pictures that the paper is using looks entirely different then what's on my Vsphere. Perhaps, I am failing because I am not using the right software to accomplish the task at hand?

This is because you are reading a Whitepaper about the vNetwork Distributed Switch instead of the standard vSwitch.

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[BigBoyLOL]

Ok, the switch is a cisco 3750 and I do not have full access to it because that will be a different department than me. What we need to happen is that the ESX host is sitting on the 10.0.5.X address and we want the 10.240.x.x to be able to have internet access but keep it in a "test" enviroment which is the 10.240. I am attaching a screen of my current configuration and with this all VMs are 10.240.x.1-3 etc and they are able to ping 10.0.5.x that is the host. But, still I can not get the VMs to go outside there. Also, talking to the network guys, the 10.0.5.x is using trunks and all VLANs should have access across the network, they are saying everything is looking good but, I want to know if I am setting up everything right.

[James Bowling]

So the NIC port that the pNIC is connected to on the switch is setup to take on VLAN ID 240? Also, you will need to set the VLAN ID for the management network since you have them on the same vSwitch and pNIC, unless your network team has set the native VLAN to whatever VLAN the 10.0.5.0 network is on.

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[BigBoyLOL]

I've tried changing the VLAN id on the management network and then I lose connection to my vSphere client.

[James Bowling]

Sounds to me that they don't have that physical switch port set as a trunk then.

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[BigBoyLOL]

Hrmm, they assure me there is trunking enabled ... I am just confused as why this doesn't work as if I keep my VM's within the same 10.0.5.x as for example 10.0.5.251 thru -3 everything works, but when I simply change the VLAN 10.240.x.x address everything seems to completely fail and all managed switches are said to have trunking and the 10.240 can talk to other stuff within the network.

[James Bowling]

That is because the 10.0.5.0 network is set as the VLAN on the switch port that the pNIC is connected to. Can your 10.240.0.0 network machines ping anything on the 10.0.5.0 network?

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[BigBoyLOL]

Hrmmm you are right, I used a physical box already with the 10.240 ip and I can't ping the 10.0.5.x hosting the ESXi nor can I ping anything on the 10.240 FROM the ESXi host....

[James Bowling]

I would ask your network team to verify the port config. Sounds like they don't have the trunking setup and just have it set for access instead.

If you found this at all helpful please award points by using the correct or helpful buttons! Thanks!

[J1mbo]

Troubleshoot this exactly as you would in the physical environment - use tracert to determine where the traffic is getting lost.

http://blog.peacon.co.uk

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[AWo]

Is there a way to accomplish this task in making my hosts think they are connected properly to a 10.240 subnet but using the 10.0.x.x for it's connectivity? Any information of help would be greatly appreciated.

If a host need to be connected to two IP subnets it needs to have two network cards. And one of these connections must be configured with a default gateways which is the destination for all packets not destined for one of these two networks (Internet, for example). So if you need an isolated test network (let'say a virtual network on your ESX host with no physical NIC attached to the vSwitch) you need to have a router (virtual machine with an OS and a routing engine) between the physical network and the isolated virtual one. That also means that the isolated network is not anymore "so" isolated as hosts can cross the router.

The second approach is to use a physical VLAN and configure a default gateway on your switch vor that VLAN (if your switch hardware supports that). Using VLAN's allows you to add physical hosts to your test network.

AWo

VCP 3 & 4

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