help with introducing DHCP & DNS server on home network

mishy

I have just set up my home lab using Vmware Esxi to complete my MCSA exams before they retire next year but my problem is I have also setup a Windows 2003 server that requires to have DHCP and DNS enabled. Since I enabled DNS and DHCP my internet connection has been bad but when I connect on Virtual Machines they are working connecting to the internet fine. I have disabled DHCP server on my wireless router but that has not helped.

My wireless router does not have a lot I can configure but I would like to have a separate network or subnet for my home lab which will not be restricted to access the internet because I will still need to go on the internet to download programs and updates. I do not have a lot of plug sockets where my server is so ideally I would like a solution where I do not have to use another router or switch if that is possible.

discount81

What I did personally to segregate everything.


This is a simplified explanation as I have more stuff in there.
My internet wireless router is just basically a modem, no DHCP runs from it and nothing aside from my NAS and ESX is in the same subnet as it.

in ESXi I created a vSwitch that was completely private and not linked to any NIC in ESXi, put all of my VMs inside of this vSwitch with a 192.168.10.0/24 subnet

I setup vyatta as a gateway for these virtual machines, eth0 was set as 192.168.2.3/24 and it is linked to a ESX vSwitch with a NIC and eth1 is set as 192.168.10.1/24 and it is linked to the private vSwitch

I set static routing between everything so all my machines can talk to each other, yet it is completely segregated.

Hope this makes sense

mishy

Thanks discount81 it makes sense but whether I will be able to do it is what I will need to find out. So if you have disabled DHCP on your wireless router how are you able to connect devices e.g an Ipod or PS3 to the router. This looks like a big project and a big challenge for me but it is best I learn at home because the same might be required in a real working environment.

sratakhin

I don't have all the details on how the DNS and DHCP servers are installed in my lab, but here is an idea.

I have VMware Workstation that runs a bunch of VMs. My DC is a multihomed Server 2003 VM that runs DNS and DHCP. Other machines connect to it using a separate virtual network. They access the Internet through NAT on the DC.

mishy

Thanks discount81 and sratakhin, I might look into vswitches so I will invest on another NIC and setup a separate network for my virtual machines because the moment I heard I was introducing a DHCP server and DNS server on top of my home wireless router I new there was always going to be issues there.

discount81

I quickly made a diagram, this is very simplified.

I run an untangle firewall virtual machine as the gateway for 192.168.1.0/24 it has a DHCP server running on that, and it acts as my internet gateway

mishy wrote: »

Thanks discount81 it makes sense but whether I will be able to do it is what I will need to find out. So if you have disabled DHCP on your wireless router how are you able to connect devices e.g an Ipod or PS3 to the router. This looks like a big project and a big challenge for me but it is best I learn at home because the same might be required in a real working environment.

discount81

You don't necessarily need anymore NICs, you just put vyatta eth0 on a vswitch that is connected to one of your NICs

and put vyatta eth1 into a private vSwitch with no NIC

sratakhin

Ok, here is how I did my network:
Added two NICs to DC, using VMnet1 and VMnet8
VMnet1 - host-only, 192.168.1.0/24
VMnet8 - NAT, 192.168.114.0/24

Activate RRAS on DC and set up NAT. VMnet1 will be your internal interface, and VMnet8 will be facing the Internet.
All other machines will only use VMnet1 network, which is where you'll set up DHCP and DNS.

mishy

discount81 wrote: »

You don't necessarily need anymore NICs, you just put vyatta eth0 on a vswitch that is connected to one of your NICs

and put vyatta eth1 into a private vSwitch with no NIC

I am going to have to look at vyatta because I had never heard of it and I am not even sure how to add it to my existing switch on my ESxi server. Is there a free version of Vyatta and will I be able to add it to my esxi host?

sratakhin

Oops, didn't notice you were running ESXi.
You don't any software. Just define two VLANs on your vSwitch. One VLAN will be used for the Internet and one for your internal network.

discount81

Yeah vyatta has a free copy at Vyatta.org | The Open Source Networking Community it is basically a virtualized router, if you've used Cisco/Juniper routers you will pick it up easily enough.

You just deploy it as a normal virtual machine, it doesn't need much memory, I put 384MB.

I prefer segregating my networks with routers, so I can do some stuff with OSPF etc

mishy wrote: »

I am going to have to look at vyatta because I had never heard of it and I am not even sure how to add it to my existing switch on my ESxi server. Is there a free version of Vyatta and will I be able to add it to my esxi host?

mishy

@discount81 - I have very little experience on the networking side of things and I am trying not to get distracted in my MCSA studies by taking on another subject before I finish it and setting up Vyatta is proving to be a bit tricky.

All the forums seem to be suggesting having to ethernet interfaces one for the outside network and one for the internal network. Am I going to be able to achieve my goal of setting up another LAN with addresses eg. 192.168.5.1 - 255 to setup my DHCP server and my VM's? Also do I need to enable DHCP on the Vyatta since I do not want a conflict with the windows server? Are you aware that the web interface has been disabled for the free edition of vyatta?

sratakhin

Why don't you just use VMWare Workstation then? Just look at how I set up my network. Took me about 10 minutes to figure it out on my own.
You could also use two NICs in your ESXi server, but if you are not going to use a virtual router (like aforementioned Vyatta or RRAS), then your VMs will need two virtual NICs as well - one for internal network and one for the Internet.

mishy

sratakhin wrote: »

Why don't you just use VMWare Workstation then? Just look at how I set up my network. Took me about 10 minutes to figure it out on my own.

Both setups Vyatta or setting up two Nics is still going to take me time to configure, I have looked at your certs and you already have CCNA and discount81 has JunOS both are much more advanced networking exams than my N+. I am still very light on networking concept and I will be scheduling the CCNA soon after my MCSA.

I appreciate the help and the pointers so maybe this is the time to dig in and explore a bit more on what you have touched on.

Thanks