Question about network design for Windows 2012

Robbo777

Hi, so I'm about to go ahead and install 2012 on another hard drive i've just purchased for it and I'm considering a few things. One is that i dont have an enterprise router where i can get into the console and modify sub-interfaces for another gateway address etc... And i want to create a 10.0.0.0/24 network with a dhcp server on it. The problem is the 10 network wont have access to the internet (which isn't a massive deal but just something i wanted to test to) because it wont be able to contact my default gateway that is set to 192.168.0.1 on my home router. I suppose i'm asking is there anyway i can get around this and when i set up my dhcp server on it will it not conflict with the current one on my router. I'm thinking no if i dont create a virtual switch that goes to the router, but if i do and i create a DHCP server on 2012 also which one will be used to allocate addresses? Since the broadcast will go out and will be picked up by both interfaces? If my logic is correct there.

Cheers

v1ral

A virtual switch would be the best way to go. Im using one right now for my MCSA lab environment. The way I did it was by using installing FreeBSD on a VM and using it as a router/switch to my home router and out to the internet.

In VMWare Workstation I configured my FreeBSD router with 2 interfaces; one interface in host-only and the other to bridge or NAT. The host-only adapter will be connected to the lab network and the bridge adapter will be connected to my home network.

Robbo777

Quick query as well then, when i create the new OS and domain controller etc.. on it, if i assign an ip such as 10.0.0.10 with no default gateway and assign a virtual windows 8 machine with .11 or whatever, will they still be able to communicate seeing as they're on the same subnet with no router interaction at all? Am just trying to think how the traffic would flow seeing they would be using the same network adapter in my machine wouldn't they? Does the virtual machine use the physical network adapter in my machine to?

Thanks

v1ral

Yes they will be able to communicate to each other as long as they are in the same subnet even if there is no router present.

The VM will use the a physical adapter to get out to the internet but it is encapsulated in the host's packets iirc. Which hypervisor are you using, VMWare, Virtualbox? Im assuming Microsoft's own, Hyper-V?

Robbo777

So how does it work exactly then? Are there 3 addresses now associated with that physical adapter or do they create a kind of virtual adapter each?

Yeah but the VM wouldn't be able to get out to the internet period would it because of its inability to reach the default gateway?

An yeah its Hyper-V, i thought i may as well go with the software that's on the exam.

v1ral

Whatever you choose as your virtual router/switch make sure it it connected to your home router and allow it to route packets out of the virtual network on to your home router's network.

Im not too familiar with Hyper-V, but on VMware Workstation my FressBSD router has 2 virtual nics. 1 nic is connected to my VMs network, the other is to my physical home router's network. This allows my VM's to reach out to the internet.

Robbo777

Yeah the thing is I'm not quite sure how it'll go, 2012 will boot up and i'll create a virtual switch for my virtual machines that will all utilise my only NIC that connects to a router with a gateway of 192.168.0.1.
I dont think it can be done to be honest, even if i create another network adapter on my PC (loopback or something) and use that they'll all have to go in the end still to a 192 default gateway because i can alter the routers interfaces etc...

BornToBeMild

It can be done. You need to create separate "virtual" networks in Hyper-V, then connect them with a software router running in a VM. This router can be configured to NAT onto your home network and as a result your VMs get internet access. Have a read through this and hopefully it will be clearer:

Create a Vyos Router VM in Hyper-V for Labs | System Specialist .NET

User Guide - VyOS

Robbo777

Quick question, can i just create a loopback adapter on my main server, set it to 10.10.10.10 and then create a bridge connection with my physical adapter that connects to my home router? Wont the bridge just act as a "switch" in theory and forward traffic to the physical adapter which will the pass on traffic to its default gateway?
Also, will the DHCP server scope i configure on the server respond FIRST to my 10.10.10.0/24 network clients when they request a DHCP address as opposed to my router which also gives out 192 addresses?

Thanks

BornToBeMild

The solution I suggested did exactly what I needed, so I didn't spend any time trying to find an alternative. I'm not sure if I understand your proposal, but to forward traffic between different networks you need a router, not a switch. Happy to be proved wrong.

To respond to requests from multiple subnets, a DHCP server needs multiple scopes, and you need a router with DHCP forwarding enabled. Vyos can do that.

Robbo777

The thing is though regarding DHCP, i'm going to have my DHCP server also on the physical domain controller giving out addresses, THAT machine connects to my router which also gives out addresses, what server will respond first to DHCP requests seeing as that cant be joined together because one will be on a domain controller and another on a home router?

Also, off topic...if i want to create another sever 2012 machine in hyper-v can i reuse the ISO file i downloaded from Microsofts evaluation centre? if not how would i go about that?

Cheers

BornToBeMild

If you're in the position where you can't run your whole lab on one server, you need to use your home network. Most people start out like that. If you have DHCP on your home router, exclude a range of addresses e.g. only give out the first 100 in the range. This gives you a range that you can use to hard code in your servers (AD for example) or use on another DHCP server. That way you won't get duplicates given out. Google "split scope DHCP".

Which one answers first? In Windows DHCP you can set a delay to make sure it answers second, but this doesn't help if you want the Windows one first. You could temporarily disable DHCP on your router maybe.

ISO files are ideal for installing virtual machines. Just create a VM, give it a virtual DVD drive and attach the ISO. Then make sure the VM boots from DVD first.

Robbo777

I think thats what i'll do regarding the ISO and DHCP setup.
Quick (possibly stupid) question, i've installed my new HDD and everything is working fine. It shows up as "New Volume" on my Windows 7 HDD. When i extract the setup files for 2012 to a temp folder on the windows 7 machine it starts up with the "Install Now" option, i click on it and it takes me to a blue screen saying "loading temporary files" etc... Then nothing, just back to the smaller windows of "Install Now", nothing works regarding the setup. I was going to install the OS on my new HDD. One thing i would say is that i have additional files that came with the Microsoft download from their site, i dont know if they're relevant though or just additional features to open once the OS is installed. Below is a screenshot of the files, new HDD and the ISO file.