Creating a virtual network in VMWare?

Hi everyone,

I use VMWare workstation to do all my labbing but I feel I'm doing my self a disservice by not replicating a real world environment. Is there away to make a virtual network so I can put different locations on different subnets and still have them talk to each other?

I've read about VMware infrastructure but I can't afford it and I can't do ESX anything because I only have one desktop computer. I want a setup like this

Chicago location = 10.0.1.x
New York Location = 10.0.2.x
Minneapolis Location = 10.0.3.x

Then add a domain controller at each location and what not and get replication working and the ability to emulate that environment to get a real world understanding of what is required to perform the tasks while labbing. I have a sneaking suspicion that the anwser will be I need to purchase VMWares higher end products or invest in other computers or something but I thought it wouldn't hurt to help.

Current setup is Vmware Workstation 7 then all the workstations connect to VMWarenet 6 to a Virtual PFSense firewall.

Thanks for any help.

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cyberguypr

The feature you want is under Edit > Virtual Network Editor

Here's a link that may help: VMware KB: Using the Virtual Network Editor in VMware Workstation

Fugazi1000

Don't forget you will need something to route between those subnets. Various options exist, but the simplest might be another VM running Windows with IP forwarding enabled and a vNic in each subnet.

RTmarc

There are also several free routers available through the VMware Appliance marketplace.

MentholMoose

Fugazi1000 wrote: »

Don't forget you will need something to route between those subnets. Various options exist, but the simplest might be another VM running Windows with IP forwarding enabled and a vNic in each subnet.

This is what I did when going through the MCITP: EA track, except I used a VM with a base install of Fedora Linux as the router. I was using VMware Workstation 6.5 and had three internal networks (for three AD Sites), and a fourth bridged network. The Linux VM was on all four networks; it served as the default gateway for the internal networks and routed between them, and also did NAT to the outside. It just took a few iptables rules to setup and worked fine with 128MB of RAM.

I was also interested in labbing more advanced DHCP server configuration, so I setup a DHCP relay on the Fedora VM, and configured the DHCP server on one Windows VM to do DHCP for all the internal networks.

wweboy

Do you guys mind if you can explain more? the setup and what distro did you use? I'm stil very confused at how to go about this. I get some of it but its just not clicking for me.

Thanks so much!

Fugazi1000

There are many ways to get routing working - as suggested Linux would work well. Vyatta is another option - a virtual appliance router.

But if you are playing with Windows and DCs and I assume looking towards MSCE/MCITP then I would go with a Windows Server in a workgroup to use as your router.

A small footprint VM (256MB Ram) with 3 (or more) NICs - 1 in each virtual subnet you have created. Regedit to enable IP forwarding (IPRouterEnable=1). Add DCs to each subnet with the 'router' IP address as the default gateway. Ping to check connectivity.

Here is a link that might help: How To Enable TCP/IP Forwarding in Windows Server 2003

blargoe

Fugazi1000 wrote: »

There are many ways to get routing working - as suggested Linux would work well. Vyatta is another option - a virtual appliance router.

But if you are playing with Windows and DCs and I assume looking towards MSCE/MCITP then I would go with a Windows Server in a workgroup to use as your router.

A small footprint VM (256MB Ram) with 3 (or more) NICs - 1 in each virtual subnet you have created. Regedit to enable IP forwarding (IPRouterEnable=1). Add DCs to each subnet with the 'router' IP address as the default gateway. Ping to check connectivity.

Here is a link that might help: How To Enable TCP/IP Forwarding in Windows Server 2003

I agree with this... if you "just needed a network" than one of the free virtual appliances is the easiest way to go, to the point of being menu/wizard driven and taking only a couple minutes to set up for some of them. However, doing a Windows router would certainly be in scope for you since this seems like the learning track that you're on.

miamikk

For the same scenario (10.0.1.x, 10.0.2.x, 10.0.3.x) subnets:

What should be the VMWare network type for subnets ? (Bridged, NAT or Host-only).?

Should any of the subnet network type have "Connect a host virtual adapter to this network" checked in VMware Virtual Network Editor ?

Also, what would be the gateway (will the same gateway work for all subnets or each subnets should have its own gateway) ?

Ive setup a WinXP system with IP forwarding enabled and with 3 NICs (10.0.1.x, 10.0.2.x, 10.0.3.x ip addresses). I did not create the whole setup yet except for WinXP system.