Virtual Rack

Requirements


To use the functions explained in this guide you must have a Virtual Rack.

You must:
  • Have a Virtual Rack (vrack)
  • Have a dedicated servers which us EG, MG or HG (1Gb/s) with the option for professional use.
  • Be able to connect via SSH (for Linux servers)

General


Virtual Rack brings together several virtual servers (whatever their number and physical location in our data centres) and connect to a virtual switch within the same private network. Your servers can communicate privately and securely between them (in a dedicated VLAN).

Order a vRack


Order professional use on the servers:

  • If you do not have a professional server, visit the OVH Manager and click on the server that requires it to order it.

Order Virtual Rack:

  • To order your virtual rack visit the Manager v3. On the homepage, select one of your servers range EG, HG or MG. Go to the section and click . Simply select the servers you want to add to your infrastructure and validate your order.

Once your virtual rack is installed you will receive a confirmation email containing the number of your vrack and useful information.

Vlan Configuration


Above all we recommend you install the following packages as it will be useful for configuration and diagnostics in case of problems:

  • vlan and vconfig Mandatory to configure your vrack
  • tcpdump To listen NICs
  • netcat For testing transfers between two servers for example
  • fping Will be useful to ping a range of IPs
  • netmask Which will allow to see the number of available IPs

Info !
Throughout this guide, eth0.XXXX corresponds to tag your vrack Example for vrack 2009 eth0.XXXX = eth0.2009. In all the examples below where we configure our vrack with IP 10.0.0.1 and this on two machines: testvrack1 (10.0.0.1) and testvrack2 (10.0.0.2).

IMPORTANT !!
You can set 10.0.0.0 / 8 with the exception of IP listed below, you must add IN ANY CASE following IP as the interface on your machine:
  • 10.0.0.0 => IP Network
  • 10.255.255.252 => IP reserved for internal use OVH
  • 10.255.255.253 => IP reserved for internal use OVH
  • 10.255.255.254 => IP Gateway your vrack


Info!
But how many IPs are in a /16? Netmask can help you see the number of IPs. In ssh, connected to your server type:
netmask -r 10.0.0.0/8
and you'll get:
10.0.0.0-10.255.255.255 (16777216)
You can use IP 16777216 IP except those listed above. As a good administrator is 10.0.0.0 and we begin to stop at 10255255250


Linux Basic

Debian & Ubuntu

IMPORTANT !!
You can set 10.0.0.0/8 with the exception of IPs listed below, you must add IN ANY CASE following IP as the interface on your machine:
  • 10.0.0.0 => IP Network
  • 10.255.255.252 => IP reserved for internal use OVH
  • 10.255.255.253 => IP reserved for internal use OVH
  • 10.255.255.254 => IP Gateway your vrack

Install the packages mentioned above:
testvrack1:~# apt-get install vlan netcat fping tcpdump netmask

Edit the network configuration file /etc/network/interfaces and add this by replacing XXXX with the tag of your vrack:
auto eth0.XXXX
iface eth0.XXXX inet static # replace XXXX for the tag of your virtual rack
address 10.0.0.1 # replace XXXX for the tag of your virtual rack
netmask 255.0.0.0
gateway 10.255.255.254

Then restart your network interface:
/etc/init.d/networking restart

To check your configuration:
testvrack1:~#ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1c:c0:b9:98:f3
inet adr:94.23.196.195 Bcast:94.23.196.255 Masque:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:48325 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:28121 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 lg file transmission:1000
RX bytes:4033662 (3.8 MiB) TX bytes:3680376 (3.5 MiB)
M�moire:e0200000-e0220000

eth0.2009 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1c:c0:b9:98:f3
inet adr:10.0.0.1 Bcast:10.255.255.255 Masque:255.0.0.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:3726 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2775 errors:0 dropped:4 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 lg file transmission:0
RX bytes:174402 (170.3 KiB) TX bytes:181332 (177.0 KiB)

lo Link encap:Boucle locale
inet adr:127.0.0.1 Masque:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:1291 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1291 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 lg file transmission:0
RX bytes:146137 (142.7 KiB) TX bytes:146137 (142.7 KiB)


testvrack1:~# route -n
IP routing table
Destination Passerelle Genmask Indic Metric Ref Use Iface
94.23.196.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
10.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0.2009
0.0.0.0 10.255.255.254 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0.2009
0.0.0.0 94.23.196.254 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0

To test your configuration, you can ping the gateway or another server of your vrack where you have already performed the operations described above:
testvrack1:~# ping 10.255.255.254
PING 10.0.0.2 (10.0.0.2) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 10.255.255.254: icmp_seq=1 ttl=63 time=9.46 ms
64 bytes from 10.255.255.254: icmp_seq=2 ttl=63 time=0.219 ms

testvrack1:~# ping 10.0.0.2
PING 10.0.0.2 (10.0.0.2) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=1 ttl=63 time=8.83 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=2 ttl=63 time=0.220 ms


Gentoo

IMPORTANT !!
You can set 10.0.0.0/8 IP except if listed below, you must add IN ANY CASE following IP as an interface on your machine:
  • 10.0.0.0 => IP Network
  • 10.255.255.252 => IP reserved for internal use OVH
  • 10.255.255.253 => IP reserved for internal use OVH
  • 10.255.255.254 => IP Gateway your vrack

Install the packages mentioned above:
testvrack1:~# emerge install vlan netcat fping tcpdump whatmask

Edit the network configuration file /etc/conf.d/net and add this by replacing XXXX with the tag of your vrack:
vlans_eth0="XXXX"

vconfig_eth0=( "set_name_type VLAN_PLUS_VID_NO_PAD" )

config_vlanXXXX=( "10.0.0.1 netmask 255.0.0.0" )

Then restart your network interface:
/etc/init.d/net.eth0 restart

To check your configuration:
testvrack1 ~ # ifconfig
eth0 Lien encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1c:c0:b9:98:f3
inet adr:94.23.196.195 Bcast:94.23.196.255 Masque:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:11260 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:5307 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 lg file transmission:1000
RX bytes:3738636 (3.5 MiB) TX bytes:701067 (684.6 KiB)
M�moire:e0200000-e0220000

lo Lien encap:Boucle locale
inet adr:127.0.0.1 Masque:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 lg file transmission:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

vlan2009 Lien encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1c:c0:b9:98:f3
inet adr:10.0.0.1 Bcast:10.255.255.255 Masque:255.0.0.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:730 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:40 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 lg file transmission:0
RX bytes:34852 (34.0 KiB) TX bytes:3556 (3.4 KiB)


testvrack1 ~ # route -n
IP routing table
Destination Passerelle Genmask Indic Metric Ref Use Iface
94.23.196.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
10.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 vlan2009
127.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
0.0.0.0 94.23.196.254 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0

To test your configuration, you can ping the gateway or another server of your virtual bay where you have already performed the operations described above:
testvrack1:~# ping 10.255.255.254
PING 10.0.0.2 (10.0.0.2) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 10.255.255.254: icmp_seq=1 ttl=63 time=9.46 ms
64 bytes from 10.255.255.254: icmp_seq=2 ttl=63 time=0.219 ms

testvrack1:~# ping 10.0.0.2
PING 10.0.0.2 (10.0.0.2) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=1 ttl=63 time=8.83 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.2: icmp_seq=2 ttl=63 time=0.220 ms


Red Hat & CentOS & Fedora

IMPORTANT !!
You can set 10.0.0.0 / 8 with the exception of IP listed below, you must add IN ANY CASE following IP as the interface on your machine:
  • 10.0.0.0 => IP Network
  • 10.255.255.252 => IP reserved for internal OVH use
  • 10.255.255.253 => IP reserved for internal OVH use
  • 10.255.255.254 => IP Gateway of your vrack

Install the packages mentioned above, netcat is already installed(nc):
testvrack1:~# yum install vconfig tcpdump

To install fping:
wget http://fping.sourceforge.net/download/fping.tar.gz
tar zxvf fping.tar.gz
cd fping-2.4b2_to/
./configure
make
make install

To install whatmask:
Waiting rpm compile

We copy the network configuration file and we add the tag of vrack:
cp /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0.XXXX

We then edit the file:
DEVICE=eth0.XXXX
VLAN=yes
BOOTPROTO=static
IPADDR=10.0.0.2
NETMASK=255.0.0.0
ONBOOT=yes
BROADCAST=10.255.255.255

Next, install your network interface:
ifup eth0.2009

To check your configuration:
root@testvrack2 ~# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1C:C0:BA:D4:54
inet addr:94.23.196.217 Bcast:94.23.196.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:319842 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:267546 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:366903141 (349.9 MiB) TX bytes:228654217 (218.0 MiB)
Memory:e0200000-e0220000

eth0.2009 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1C:C0:BA:D4:54
inet addr:10.0.0.2 Bcast:10.255.255.255 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:110446 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:45326 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:110613350 (105.4 MiB) TX bytes:108015196 (103.0 MiB)

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:140 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:140 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:19479 (19.0 KiB) TX bytes:19479 (19.0 KiB)


root@testvrack2 ~# route -n
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
94.23.196.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
169.254.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0.2009
10.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0.2009
0.0.0.0 94.23.196.254 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0

To test your configuration, you can ping the gateway or another server of your virtual bay where you have already performed the operations described above:
root@testvrack2 ~# ping 10.255.255.254
PING 10.255.255.254 (10.255.255.254) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 10.255.255.254: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=8.36 ms
64 bytes from 10.255.255.254: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=0.407 ms
64 bytes from 10.255.255.254: icmp_seq=3 ttl=255 time=0.388 ms

root@testvrack2 ~# ping 10.0.0.1
PING 10.0.0.1 (10.0.0.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 10.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=63 time=11.4 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=63 time=0.218 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=63 time=0.213 ms



Virtualisation

Esxi


Being drafted.

Proxmox


Being drafted.

Other Distributions

Free BSD


Being drafted.

Open Solaris


Being drafted.

Tests, Diagnostics


  • Your IP is private in ifconfig? If not, check the file /etc/network/interfaces
  • The IP is private but not on the vrack:Have you filled out the tag of vrack in the interfaces file?
  • The gateway does not ping:Is the server really in the vrack? Have you configured the right gateway? Have you configured a firewall blocking the requests?
  • To verify what IPs are addable in your block:
root@testvrack1 fping-2.4b2_to# fping -g 178.33.8.64/28 # replace this for your block
178.33.8.64 error while sending ping: Permission denied

178.33.8.71 is alive
178.33.8.78 is alive

  • For flow between your servers:
In the server to test :
# nc -l 7777 > /dev/null

In the other server :
# dd if=/dev/zero bs=100M count=1 | nc 178.33.8.71 7777
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
104857600 bytes (105 MB) copied, 9,08299 s, 61,5 MB/s

  • The gateway pings, but not the other servers:

(Section in progress)

Additional Options

In addition to the standard use of your virtual rack you can also:

Bloc IP RIPE



Additional sections being drafted