How to connect to Virtual Private Network?

[ultimatetester1]

Dear Community,

I am planning on using esxi for virtualizing a few services.
Now, my simple network is created by having a server hosting VPN software (openVPN for that matter) and all other machines connect to this server.
I wanted to keep security high by creating a virtual private network so only those machines connected to this network can be reached and my actual network isn't involved in this.

Now, I've run ESXI quite a while back, and it was a simple Linux machine on which you couldn't change anything.
Can I make my hypervisor connect to the VPN automatically on boot so it joins my network?
I can of course setup VPN on all the OS'es I am virtualizing, but I think it's easier to just connect the whole thing to the VPN.

Please advice me!

[Linjo]

No, not that I am aware of. A better idea would be to setup that to your router or network device that is in front of the ESX

[ultimatetester1]

Okay, good to know. I am wondering if this router could be a virtualized one from the same hypervisor?
I never messed with the network settings, but could I manage this with vSwitch?

[Linjo]

No, not with a vSwitch, its just a switch...

Do you not have a router in front of the ESX?

[ultimatetester1]

I actually do have a router, but it's not capable of setting up a VPN on it and creating seperate networks. My idea is to have my own private network for personal use WITHOUT the VPN and another network next to this one WITH VPN connection.

Anyways, I think I can create this by creating a new virtual network adapter, putting openVPN client on a small linux machine, set it up as bridge, and let the other virtual machines connect to this same virtual network adapter. This way everything will be bridged through the openVPN machine, software-based :smileyhappy:

[tomtom901]

Sure, that would be possible, no problem.

[wwan]

You can certainly have a virtualized router from the same hypervisor. I have seen a few e.g. watchguard, pfsense. Even vmware network and security provide vpn capability. It is just a VM with multiple vnics - so sure you can just use a linux VM. You can have two port groups on your vswitch, one for outside and one for inside network. All you VMs that need to be access via vpn will go to inside portgroup. Router will have one vmic for each portgroup. Depends on your environment, you might want to separate the two networks on the physical network using vlans and such.