Proxmox and OVH failover IP setup

[TheMSG]

Hi everyone

I'm new here, and I'm also new to TrueNAS. A bit of personal background: I'm an experienced software engineer with 15+ years of experience, always have been working with Linux, mostly Ubuntu. I started renting dedicated servers with OVH and using Proxmox about 5 years ago. Networking is far from being my strength, and I'm struggling with my TrueNAS Core 13 installation.

My needs are simple. I have a brand new dedicated server with nothing but Proxmox VE 7.2 installed. The first VM I'd like to setup would be a TrueNAS instance, but I can't, for the love of whatever, complete the network setup.

As a reference, here's the config file I'd be using if I were to configure a new Ubuntu Server which uses netplan (IP's are fake):

Dedicated server public IP: 68.74.101.28
Failover IP used by the VM: 105.29.51.54

Code:

    version: 2
    ethernets:
        ens18:
            addresses:
                - 105.29.51.54/32
            nameservers:
                addresses:
                    - 1.1.1.1
                    - 8.8.8.8
                search: []
            optional: true
            routes:
                - to: 0.0.0.0/0
                  via: 68.74.101.254
                  on-link: true

When I boot my TrueNAS VM, I end up in the "Console Setup" menu, and clearly, everything I need to complete the network configuration is available there. Like I said, network setup isn't my strength at all, so after several hours of trying my best, my vm still has no Internet access.

This is the menu I'm talking about:

Console Setup Menu

Describes the Console Setup menu of TrueNAS CORE.

www.truenas.com

Any kind of help would be much appreciated! Thank you.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Most regulars here use ESXi instead of Proxmox if any hypervisor at all. I have no idea how networking in Proxmox works. That being said, still a warm welcome but you will need some luck to find the help you need here. So I suggest you also ask at the Proxmox forum or whatever platform they use.

 

[TheMSG]

Thanks for the welcome. :-D

I really don't think Promox is a problem here. Like I said, I have no problem setting everything up using netplan on Ubuntu VMs (on other dedicated servers I manage). I also have three Windows Server VMs that run perfectly fine.

My problem is that I'm not that good with network setup, and I don't know (enough) what I'm doing.

OVH's setup with failover IPs is pretty simple when explained in plain old English:

1. Set the failover IP as your VM's static IP (105.29.51.54/32 in my example)
2. Route all external traffic through the dedicated server's public IP, but replace the last block by 254 (68.74.101.254 in my example)

I vaguely understand what's happening here, but I'm too much of a networking noob to successfully achieve with TrueNAS's tools what I was able to do with netplan.

Step 1 is pretty easy to accomplish. I'm having difficulty with Step 2.

 

[melbek]

If your failover IP is 105.29.51.54 then you should use 105.29.51.254 as a GW and subnet is /24

Don't forget to generate a MAC address on the OVH portal for the IP, use OVH type not VMware, and use the MAC address in the adapter settings.

 

[TheMSG]

Don't forget to generate a MAC address on the OVH portal for the IP, use OVH type not VMware, and use the MAC address in the adapter settings.

Confirmed: that part was already correctly configured.

If your failover IP is 105.29.51.54 then you should use 105.29.51.254 as a GW and subnet is /24

Really? All my Ubuntu and Windows VM use the dedicated server's public IP as gateway (the first three blocks). What's different here, if it's not too much to ask?

In any case, I did exactly what you were proposing and everything's working now. Thanks A LOT!

Notes for people who would stumble on this thread in the future:

1. From FreeNAS's console menu, you set the /24 subnet from "Configure Network Interfaces". /24 means you need to set 255.255.255.0 (or /24) as netmask.
2. Gateway is set from the "Configure Default Route" menu.

It probably is obvious for many people, but when your understanding of everything network related is a bit limited, this might save you a headache or two.