Help setting up a virtual network

Technit

Junior Member
Aug 6, 2012
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Fairly new to networking and running virtual machines, so be kind.

Im trying to setup and run a virtual win server 08r2 machine on my win7 machine with VMware.

I want to be able to offer dhcp, dns, file and web services from the 80r2 virtual machine (mainly for learning/playing).

So far I have installed and setup the os, roles etc on the virtual machine. However, Im having a little bit of trouble getting it to integrate with my lan.

Im not sure if this is possible, but I would like to do something like the image posted below.

Under the first setup, all machines connect to my modem/router (a billion 7800n). Since the virtual machine will offer the same roles, is it possible to have it 'pass-through' the modem/router so that the virtual server bypasses the dhcp, dns, firewall etc of the modem/router and gains access to the internet directly? All other machines in the network are independent of the virtual machine under this setup, but can connect to it from the other direction (ie through the internet)

Under the second setup, the physical nics on the host win7 machine, and any other machines (eg laptop) are disabled and virtual nic's are enabled which see them connect to the virtual server 08 computer directly, which serves the role which the modem/router provides to each of them under the first setup.

This may not be the best way about getting this done, but I saw having these two setups as a solution for maintaining network/internet access for all machines regardless of if the virtual computer is running (second setup) or not (first setup).

From what I understand, setting up a bridged connection on VMware grants the virtual server its own nic which can allow the first setup to be accomplished, but I havent looked at how to pass-through the router/modem.

No idea how to go about setting up the second setup.

Note that Im running static IP's on my network. Oh and I have also setup the virtual server as a domain controller.

Cheers.


layoutxv.jpg
 

heymrdj

Diamond Member
May 28, 2007
3,999
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91
What VMWare product are you using, Workstation or ESXi? In Workstation I have a win2k8r2 lab setup. What I did was go into Network Preferences on the workstation home page, and modify the NAT nic. I turned off NAT's dhcp server. With NAT you are given a subnet and gateway to use. So I then setup win2k8 as a vm, and then installed the dhcp and dns roles, and configured it so that it handed out an address range i wanted, using the given NAT gateway, and google's public DNS servers. I now had a full lab with DHCP/DNS/AD and more behind a NAT so only my virtual network was affected by the changes, but everything in the lab could access the internet.
 

Technit

Junior Member
Aug 6, 2012
4
0
0
What VMWare product are you using, Workstation or ESXi? In Workstation I have a win2k8r2 lab setup. What I did was go into Network Preferences on the workstation home page, and modify the NAT nic. I turned off NAT's dhcp server.

I have done the above and Im able to connect through to the lan/internet from the vm machine. Struggling to visualise the NAT setup above vs the vm having its own independent virtual nic.

Ill do some more reading up. Thanks for your help.
 

Technit

Junior Member
Aug 6, 2012
4
0
0
What VMWare product are you using, Workstation or ESXi? In Workstation I have a win2k8r2 lab setup. What I did was go into Network Preferences on the workstation home page, and modify the NAT nic. I turned off NAT's dhcp server.

Can you explain why I can run a pathping from the virtual server to the IP of my host machine, but I cant run a pathping from the host machine to the subnet IP of my virtual machine?

Host IP: 192.168.1.1
Modem/Router IP: 192.168.1.254

NAT Subnet: 192.168.24.0
Subnet IP of VM: 192.168.24.1
Subnet Gateway: 192.168.24.254

running pathping 192.168.24.1
 

Technit

Junior Member
Aug 6, 2012
4
0
0
Can you explain why I can run a pathping from the virtual server to the IP of my host machine, but I cant run a pathping from the host machine to the subnet IP of my virtual machine?

Host IP: 192.168.1.1
Modem/Router IP: 192.168.1.254

NAT Subnet: 192.168.24.0
Subnet IP of VM: 192.168.24.1
Subnet Gateway: 192.168.24.254

running pathping 192.168.24.1

thats ok, I see why I shouldnt be able to now