Connecting two Virtual LANs on VMware Workstation 12.5 Pro

[GnVm]

Hi,

As per the attached image.

Private Static IPs is configured in both LANs (LAN-1 and LAN-2).

In LAN-1, Class A Static IP is configured. And in LAN-2, Class C Static IP is configured.

In LAN-1, IT.InTech is Windows Server 2016 and rest (IT1, IT2 & IT3) is Windows 10 as domain computers.

In LAN-2, Ops.InTech is Windows Server 2012 R2 and rest (Ops1, Ops2 & Ops3) are Windows 7 as domain computers.

Both networks are working fine. And users of both domains are able to work and sign in their respective networks successfully.

Without making any change in both networks, I would like to setup as following.

• Connect both LANs to each other and
• Connect both LANs to Internet.

Please elaborate steps for these setups.

Regards

GnVm

[RDPetruska]

The only way I know to do this is to have another VM which is a router, connected to both of those LAN networks, and also the internet.  You should be able to find pre-built router/firewall VMs.

[joseph_robert_m]

Smoothwall can accomplish this task.  I use it to isolate by development network from my production network.  It is a SOHO Linux based router and you an run as a VM also.  There are other ones similar, but I have not been able to run them as VMs.

If you are feeling adventurous, try GNS3.  It is a program that does virtual networking.  If you can get an image of a Cisco router, it may make it easier to virtualize the network. If not they have some switches and routers already in the program for use.

[GnVm]

Please elaborate/ explain it with steps.

[joseph_robert_m]

Which part? Plus, I am pretty sure that explaining how to set up a router using either Smoothwall or GNS3 is beyond the scope of this discussion.

But the easiest would be to down load the Smoothwall ISO, and create a vm with three NICs, making sure that you generate the MAC address manually so that they are different and set them to appropriate networks created via the network editor. Run the installation, when coming to the network set up, select the red-orange-green network, after that set the NICs: one for red, one for green, one for orange. Set your passwords, then read the Administration manual for Smoothwall on how to manage it.

But also remember, if your host does not have multiple NICs, and set to the different networks you want to connect, you will not be able to run multiple networks to/on your vm's.

And with the amount of vm's that you are running, I suggest that you get ESXi 5.5 or higher on a dedicated machine, and setting up the networks thru it. Plus your overhead will be alot lower as you will not have a GUI to support, giving more CPU cycles to your vms.  vSphere 5.1 and higher have a free version, although some of the extra bells and whistles will not be there.  Head over to www dot vladan dot fr, there are alot of resources for you to read on.