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spinoza156

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How Can I Segment My Lan Using VMWare Standard Switches

Hi.

I would like to be able to segment my flat LAN network into multiple segments mostly for security reasons. My current setup has two VMware 5.5 hosts connected to a couple managed Cisco switches. My goal is to be able to segment my VM's onto different networks. My license is Vmware Standard (which precludes the use of the Cisco 1000v).

Are there any solutions out there (perhaps a virtual router) that can let me do this? Or can I do this using the standard vSwitch technology included in Vmware?
Avatar of Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
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You could do this with vLANS, e.g. create two vLANS, and then present a trunk to a single vSwitch, and then use two VLANS and tags.

or create two vSwitches, different physical networks connected to different vSwitches, with different virtual machine network portgroups.

That's the network's created, but to route between the networks, you will need a virtual router.

Which could be Freesco or Monowall.
just beware, you need a layer 3 or router to do intervlan routing, which also means all traffic has to go out the physical unless you do that in a virtual router
Avatar of spinoza156
spinoza156

ASKER

Thanks Andrew.

Going with the first option I have created my switch with two port groups. How would the virtual router look in this simple scenario?
The virtual router, will have to have two nics, connected to Network Test1 and Test2.

using different IP Addresses, it will route traffic between the networks, no need to use VLAN Tags.
Thank you for the clarification.
 
Network isolation is paramount as I will be cloning my production network into the test networks. Is this achievable using the above configuration AND never connecting the physical adapter?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
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This is the most elegant solution. The information regarding virtual routing was also very helpful.