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vLAN for test LAB can I safely duplicate IP addresses and how.

Hello Experts,

I'm quite familiar with IP subnets but still learning about vLANS.

One of our key systems is a client/server accounting system configured with appropriate IP addresses and ports for the clients to access the system. I maintain a 2nd VM of this system as a test/development system. This 2nd system is of course configured with a different IP and ports.

There would be advantages to having the live system and the test system configured identically with same IP and ports, and I'm wondering if the correct application of a vLAN could allow this.

Notes:

For testing purposes, I would create a clone of a workstation which would go on the same vLAN port.

The test system does not need to communicate with a domain controller.

It does however need to communicate with printers on the main network (and I don't know if allowing this traffic would then create problems).

Thanks

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Bryant Schaper

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Don Johnston

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eeRoot

You need to carefully plan it, but a firewall between the test and live systems could be configured to allow traffic from the test system to the live printers (or print server), but NOT from the live system to test. I'd guess that the firewall would need to be in transparent mode, rather that the more common routed mode. Routed mode would get confused by having identical IP subnets in use on multiple interfaces.

Craig Beck

Although... You could connect the dev/test network to the printer network with a router configured with NAT. I think that you could make that work. I think. :-)

Yes you could, and it was exactly what I was going to suggest :-)