Configuring the vRack between the Public Cloud and a Dedicated Server

The configuration below is based on Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble Numbat).

• Before you begin, establish an SSH connection to your server and run the following command to install the VLAN package:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install vlan

• Next, load the 8021q kernel module:

sudo modprobe 8021q

• To verify that the module is loaded:

user@server:~$ lsmod | grep 8021q
8021q                  40960  0
garp                   16384  1 8021q
mrp                    20480  1 8021q

• Run the following command to ensure the modules are permanently loaded at boot:

sudo su -c 'echo "8021q" >> /etc/modules'

• Create or edit the cloud.cfg configuration file to prevent automatic changes to the network configuration:

sudo nano /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-disable-network-config.cfg

• Add this line:

network: {config: disabled}

Save and exit the file.

• To obtain the network interface name and its MAC address:

ip a

• Here, the interface we want to configure is eno2 with MAC address: d0:50:99:d6:6b:14.

• Add the network configuration for this interface and the VLAN declaration to the configuration file, ensuring it is placed directly beneath the version: 2 line. Replace the values with your own:

sudo nano /etc/netplan/50-cloud-init.yaml

network:
    version: 2
    ethernets:
        eno2:
             match:
               macaddress: d0:50:99:d6:6b:14
    vlans:
        vlan10:
            id: 10                          # VLAN ID
            link: eno2                  # Interface name
            addresses:
            - 192.168.0.14/16

• Overview:

• Save and close the file, then run the following command:

sudo netplan apply

• If you receive the following message:

WARNING:root:Cannot call Open vSwitch: ovsdb-server.service is not running.

• You can resolve this by installing the following package:

sudo apt install openvswitch-switch

• Verify that the configuration has been properly applied:

ip a

The configuration below is based on Almalinux 9.

• Before you begin, establish an SSH connection to your server and run the following command to load the 8021q kernel module:

sudo modprobe 8021q

• To verify that the module is loaded:

user@server:~$ lsmod | grep 8021q
8021q                  40960  0
garp                   16384  1 8021q
mrp                    20480  1 8021q

• Run the following command to ensure the modules are permanently loaded at boot:

sudo su -c 'echo "8021q" >> /etc/modules'

• Retrieve the interface names and identify the private interface:

ip a

In this example, the private interface is eno2.

• Next, create a subinterface configuration file for the VLAN in the main network configuration file. In this example, the file is named ifcfg-eno2.10, here eno2 refers to the private network interface and 10 the VLAN ID.

sudo nano /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts-ifcfg-eno2.10

• Add the following entries to the configuration file. Replace the values with your own.

TYPE=Vlan
PHYSDEV=eno2
VLAN_ID=10
BOOTPROTO=none
IPADDR=192.168.0.14
PREFIX=16
NAME=eno2.10
DEVICE=eno2.10
ONBOOT=yes
VLAN=yes

• Save and exit the file.

• Overview:

• Restart the network interface:

sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

The configuration below is based on Fedora 43.

• Before you begin, establish an SSH connection to your server and run the following command to load the 8021q kernel module:

sudo modprobe 8021q

• To verify that the module is loaded:

user@server:~$ lsmod | grep 8021q
8021q                  40960  0
garp                   16384  1 8021q
mrp                    20480  1 8021q

• Run the following command to ensure the modules are permanently loaded at boot:

sudo su -c 'echo "8021q" >> /etc/modules'

• To obtain the network interface name:

ip a

In this example, the interface is called eno2. We will need to create a VLAN subinterface before assigning a private IP address to it.

• Use the following command to create the VLAN interface:

sudo nmcli con add type vlan con-name <vlan-name> dev <parent-interface> id <vlan-id>.

Replace vlan-name with the name of the VLAN subinterface, parent-interface with the name of the private interface and vlan-id with the VLAN ID.

In this example:

sudo nmcli con add type vlan con-name eno2.10 dev eno2 id 10
Connection 'eno2.10' successfully added.

• Assign a private IP address to the VLAN subinterface:

sudo nmcli con mod <vlan-name> ipv4.addresses <ip/prefix> ipv4.method manual

In this example:

sudo nmcli con mod eno2.10 ipv4.addresses 192.168.0.14/16 ipv4.method manual

• Next, bring the up the VLAN subinterface:

sudo nmcli con up <vlan-name>.

In this example:

sudo nmcli con up eno2.10
# Connection successfully activated

The steps above create a configuration file for the VLAN interface. This file is located at /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/ and follows the naming format vlan-name.nmconnection.

In this example, the file is called eno2.10.nmconnection.

• Overview:

Log on to your server via a remote desktop connection, and open the Server Manager app. Then select Local Server. Now click the Disabled link next to NIC Teaming:

Next, right-click on the network interface and select Add to New Team.

In the popup window, create a new team by typing a team name into the Team name field. When you have finished, click OK.

Next, we need to define the vLAN tag. In the ADAPTERS AND INTERFACES pane of the NIC Teaming screen, go to the Team Interfaces tab and right-click the interface you have just added to the new team, then click Properties. Now click Specific VLAN, and define the tag:

Next, we need to configure the IP address of the vLAN. Click the Start button on your keyboard, then click Control Panel:

Next, click Network and Internet:

Then Network and Sharing Center:

Then click Change adapter settings:

Next, right-click the vLAN interface, and click Properties:

Note that in our example Ethernet 2 is the interface used for the vRack. However, it is possible that the vRack NIC is 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.

Then double-click Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4):

Next, click Use the following IP address. For IP address, type in an IP from your internal range. For Subnet mask, type in 255.255.0.0.

Finally, click the OK button to save the changes, then reboot your server.