LAN setup advice

[meister11]

Hi All,

I am new to networking and wish to set up a separate lab environment that i can use for training and testing purposes. To give a brief overview i have a Broadband router installed downstairs to serve the internet connection which is this model

http://www.trustedreviews.com/sky-hub-2013-review

and i have another PC upstairs which which has a Netgear WNR2200 connected to it:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/netwo...-n300-wireless-cable-router-10235639-pdt.html

and this has been flashed with the DD-WRT firmware to bridge to the downstairs router so i have an internet connection upstairs.

Now what i want to achieve is have my lab environment upstairs and have the lab on a different network, but how can i achieve this if at all with my existing equipment but also have the lab be able to access the internet through the ISP connection. Would VLAN's help at all here?

I do have an old Cisco switch laying around that could also potentially be used should there be a need?

I am new to networking so not sure how best to go about this so any advice/feedback is much appreciated

Thanks

 

[AdvHomeServer]

First, what do you want to do with your test LAN?

If you want to play with operating systems and networking them together with various clients, you need a PC powerful enough to handle virtual systems. A free copy of VirtualBox can be configured to network several virtual systems on the same PC that talk on their own network and only use the main network for internet access. They have no awareness otherwise of the rest of the home network. YouTube has videos for showing you how to make the configuration in VirtualBox.

I have had 2 simultaneous instances of various Microsoft server operating systems plus the main host on an 8GB i5 laptop with OK throughput. It was only for educational purposes so high performance was not needed. If you're running Win 8 Pro you can turn on Hyper-V as a feature and use it.

If virtual networking fills you needs, then consider upgrading the hardware and memory beyond what I described.

 

[meister11]

First, what do you want to do with your test LAN?

If you want to play with operating systems and networking them together with various clients, you need a PC powerful enough to handle virtual systems. A free copy of VirtualBox can be configured to network several virtual systems on the same PC that talk on their own network and only use the main network for internet access. They have no awareness otherwise of the rest of the home network. YouTube has videos for showing you how to make the configuration in VirtualBox.

I have had 2 simultaneous instances of various Microsoft server operating systems plus the main host on an 8GB i5 laptop with OK throughput. It was only for educational purposes so high performance was not needed. If you're running Win 8 Pro you can turn on Hyper-V as a feature and use it.

If virtual networking fills you needs, then consider upgrading the hardware and memory beyond what I described.

Hi,

Sorry i appear to have missed some key parts out here.

So with my test LAN i wanted to in effect create a domain consisting of virtual servers. Couple of DC's,WSUS server etc to get me started. I want these in a separated LAN however with internet access through my ISP router.

I also failed to mention that i do have a HP proliant Microserver which i will use as an ESXI host, and also a Synology NAS which i will use to create storage and then present this to ESXI host as a volume.

Hopefully this makes sense

Thanks in advance

 

[AdvHomeServer]

if you have ESXI and a server powerful enough to host your network in a virtual environment, I don't understand your concern. I did exactly what you described with Virtual Box and some instances of Windows Server 2012.

The NAS might be a little slow to support server operating systems in real time. I used an installed drive but USB 3.0 was adequate for educational purposes. It should be fine as normal storage.

Depending on how many systems you want to run simultaneously, 16GB Ram or more might be best from the start and an SSD drive will help with the wait time while the servers boot up. I have no vshpere experience, but it's big skill to have. If you just want to learn about operating systems, virtual Box is good but Hyper-V will help you on MS cert exams, even though it doesn't appear to be used much in the real world compared to vmware.

 

[meister11]

if you have ESXI and a server powerful enough to host your network in a virtual environment, I don't understand your concern. I did exactly what you described with Virtual Box and some instances of Windows Server 2012.

The NAS might be a little slow to support server operating systems in real time. I used an installed drive but USB 3.0 was adequate for educational purposes.

Basically my concerns were regarding how to segregate off the ESXI host, and have all the virtual servers/clients on a different network but also have a route out to the internet still for instance so the WSUS server could grab updates then push them out and also the clients have general connectivity. I want this all segregated on a different network so i can also set up a DHCP and DNS server and not let the router handle this.

Does this clarify my concerns?

Thanks

 

[AdvHomeServer]

Basically my concerns were regarding how to segregate off the ESXI host, and have all the virtual servers/clients on a different network but also have a route out to the internet still for instance so the WSUS server could grab updates then push them out and also the clients have general connectivity. I want this all segregated on a different network so i can also set up a DHCP and DNS server and not let the router handle this.

Does this clarify my concerns?

Thanks

Like I said, I did exactly that using VirtualBox. The virtual systems were all nicely networked on one laptop. They had internet access. No device on the home network knew anything about them. No virtual system knew anything about the home network. They were both on completely different subnets. If needed, I could bridge them in a couple of seconds with the home network.

Vsphere is more complicated, but I have no doubt you can do everything you need with it. If your needs are only for hobby purposes, VirtualBox is a better choice since it's easy to get operational info on it. If your interests are professional, vsphere will give you solid job skills. Hyper-V is OK and convenient if you're on Win 8 pro and/or planning for cert exams, but, according to Dice, it's not very popular in real life.

If you're just looking for how to work with the fine points of vsphere, then this is probably the wrong place to ask. A VMware manual would be better help.

This might help (might not too ... don't spend money without confirmation.) Since vsphere is a type 1 hypervisor you need direct network access. Find a spare router. Plug its WAN port into a LAN port on your main system. On the spare router, give it a different subnet and use your main network as the gateway. Might work.

 

[meister11]

Thanks for the help so far,

Networking has always been somewhat of a nemesis for me and think i make it harder than it needs to be at times.

I do have a spare Netgear WNR2200 at home so i could look at trying the suggestion you made. I also read an article on using a VM as a router which is another option to look at. I am using Vsphere as you say more for from a professional point of view and to learning.

I may also have a look at virtualbox. Am i right in saying this is a type 2 hyper-visor and needs to be installed on top of an OS?

 

[AdvHomeServer]

Thanks for the help so far,

Networking has always been somewhat of a nemesis for me and think i make it harder than it needs to be at times.

I do have a spare Netgear WNR2200 at home so i could look at trying the suggestion you made. I also read an article on using a VM as a router which is another option to look at. I am using Vsphere as you say more for from a professional point of view and to learning.

I may also have a look at virtualbox. Am i right in saying this is a type 2 hyper-visor and needs to be installed on top of an OS?

Yes, VirtualBox is a type 2 hypervisor and rides on top of your main O/S. The PC needs to have virtualization enabled in the bios to load. Basically, if it doesn't load, it will tell you to turn on virtualization. VirtualBox is more common among hobbyists, I believe. VMWare player is common, but if you look at virtualization demos on YouTube, most appear to use VirtualBox.

VSphere will give you solid job skills that are in demand so don't toss away the idea of it completely. And, if you're going for certs from Microsoft, Hyper-V is tested on. You may as well use it for experience to help with the exam, but only if you have Windows 8 Pro. It's not worth the effort as a standalone hypervisor on a PC.

YouTube has videos that explain how to separately network some VMs on a PC hosting VirtualBox. It's easy and VirtualBox free.

The VM as a router might be PFSense. That's not it's best use. In fact, it's a pretty unusual use. Just use VirtualBox and/or watch some videos.

 

[meister11]

Yes, VirtualBox is a type 2 hypervisor and rides on top of your main O/S. The PC needs to have virtualization enabled in the bios to load. Basically, if it doesn't load, it will tell you to turn on virtualization. VirtualBox is more common among hobbyists, I believe. VMWare player is common, but if you look at virtualization demos on YouTube, most appear to use VirtualBox.

VSphere will give you solid job skills that are in demand so don't toss away the idea of it completely. And, if you're going for certs from Microsoft, Hyper-V is tested on. You may as well use it for experience to help with the exam, but only if you have Windows 8 Pro. It's not worth the effort as a standalone hypervisor on a PC.

YouTube has videos that explain how to separately network some VMs on a PC hosting VirtualBox. It's easy and VirtualBox free.

The VM as a router might be PFSense. That's not it's best use. In fact, it's a pretty unusual use. Just use VirtualBox and/or watch some videos.

Thank you for all your help,has given me a lot of food for thought! I may be able to get hold of a Cisco or Extreme switch that is not in use anymore. If i could and with my current setup, would it be possible to connect the switch to the DD-WRT flashed router in my upstairs study which is essentially an extension of the ISP 192.168.0 network which serves my internet connectivity and then create a VLAN port on the switch with a route back to the 192.168.0 network for internet connectivity and then plug my lab environment devices into the VLAN ports thus creating an isolated network?