vSphere vNetwork

Hello,

In my home lab i have the following configuration:

vSwitch0               -     Physical Adapter connected to router (192.168.1.x)

vSwitch1               -     No physical adapters (10.0.0.x)

All my VM's sit on vSwitch1. I had to do it this way to get PXE boot working in my lab properly.

My problem is that i cannot connect to any of my machines on vswitch1 from my 192.168.1 network.

What is the easiest way to be able to achieve this? I know i could probably stick a windows server in there and do RRAS but that would be a waste of resources. Is there an easier way?

You have to have a VM with 2 virtual NICs connected to both vSwitches acting as a router.

You're limited to some sort of dual homed router, otherwise you're stuck with the vSphere client's console.

Hello,

VMware's vSwitches are standalone entitites that do not allow for switch stacking. IN order to connect two vSwitches you need to use a lightweight VM that acts as a firewall/router. There are several from which you can choose such as Vyatta, Smoothwall, IPCop, etc.

Or use your RRAS idea.

The device, which ever it is, has 2 vNICs, each connected to one of the vSwitches in use. I.e.

vSwitch A=>Portgroup A=> [vNIC A -- VM -- vNIC B]<=Portgroup B<=vSwitch B

The VM becomes the router between the switches.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

Communities Moderator, VMware vExpert,

Author: VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security,VMware ESX and ESXi in the Enterprise 2nd Edition

Podcast: The Virtualization Security Podcast Resources: The Virtualization Bookshelf

Thanks for the reply guys. I ended up using RRAS and a multi-homed VM, works a treat.