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Configuring the network on Proxmox VE on the High Grade, Scale, and Advance ranges

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Learn two ways to configure an Additional IP on Proxmox VE: via the public interfaces and via the private interfaces (vRack).

Info

The sections related to Advance range servers only apply to third-generation Advance servers powered by EPYC 4004 Series processors.

Older Advance generation servers do not rely on the same network infrastructure.

Info

This article is about Additional IPv4 configuration on a public interface. You can also configure IPv6 addresses on your virtual machines using this guide.

Please note that Additional IP addresses can also be configured in a vRack (private network), which allows interconnection over a wide range of OVHcloud services, offering more flexibility.

Learn how to configure Additional IP addresses in a vRack without guides for IPv4 and IPv6.

Warning

NOTE: As of May 2025, virtual MACs can be used on High Grade & Scale ranges.

If you want to use virtual MACs to configure the network on Proxmox VE on High Grade and Scale servers, you can refer to Configuring Additional IPs in bridge mode on your virtual machines.

 

Instructions

Choose your method

Click one of the methods below to jump to instructions for carrying it out.

Additional IP in routed mode on public network interfaces: With this configuration, Additional IP addresses must be attached to a dedicated server. Suppose you have multiple Proxmox virtualization servers and you want to migrate a VM from one server to another. In that case, you must also migrate the Additional IP address to the destination server via the OVHcloud Control Panel or the OVHcloud API. You can automate this step by writing a script that uses the OVHcloud APIs.

Additional IP via the vRack: This configuration is more flexible as you do not need to associate an Additional IP with a server but with a vRack. This means that if you have multiple Proxmox virtualization servers, and you want to migrate a VM from one server to another, you do not need to perform any action on OVHcloud APIs. The only requirement is for all servers to be connected to the same vRack.

 

Collect environment data

How to find MAC addresses

From the OVHcloud Control Panel:

  1. Select Bare Metal Cloud from the top navigation bar.
  2. On the left-hand menu, select Dedicated servers and choose your server.
  3. Click the Network interfaces tab.
  4. Locate the Private interface and take note of the MAC address.

Proxmox network configuration - step 2

SSH into your dedicated server and run the following command to list all interfaces:

ip a

Example result:

Info

Take note of the MAC addresses linked to each of the interfaces. These will help you identify your variables as well as the table below.

Network Proxmox advance - step 0

Determine assignable IP addresses

In IP blocks purchased from OVHcloud, the first, penultimate, and last addresses of a given IP block are always reserved for the network address, network gateway, and network broadcast, respectively. This means that the first assignable address is the second address in the block, as shown in the example below for the 46.105.135.96/28 block:

46.105.135.96   # Reserved: network address
46.105.135.97   # First assignable IP
46.105.135.98
46.105.135.99
46.105.135.100
46.105.135.101
46.105.135.102
46.105.135.103
46.105.135.104
46.105.135.105
46.105.135.106
46.105.135.107
46.105.135.108
46.105.135.109   # Last assignable IP
46.105.135.110   # Reserved: network gateway
46.105.135.111   # Reserved: network broadcast
Info

The subnet mask used in this example is appropriate for our block of Additional IPs. Your subnet mask may differ depending on the size of your block. When you purchase your IP block, you will receive an email with the subnet mask to use.

Attach an Additional IP block
Method 1: Attach to a server
Method 2: Attach to a vRack

In your OVHcloud Control Panel, go to the Bare Metal Cloud section and click on Network. Next, open the IP menu.

Select the more options ... button to the right of your IP block, then click Attach this IP block to another service.

Network Proxmox - Configuring ve high grade scale advance ranges - step 1

On the next screen, select a different service and click Confirm.

Network Proxmox - Configuring ve high grade scale advance ranges - step 2

 

Method 1: Additional IP in routed mode on public network interfaces

With this configuration, Additional IP addresses must be attached to a dedicated server. If you have multiple Proxmox virtualization servers and you want to migrate a VM from one server to another, you will also need to migrate the Additional IP address to the destination server, via the OVHcloud Control Panel or the OVHcloud API. You can automate this step by writing a script that uses the OVHcloud APIs.

Requirements:

Warning

NOTE: No virtual MAC address must be applied to Additional IPs in the OVHcloud Control Panel.

 

Target configuration schema

Tip

Click the tab for the type of server you are using.

High Grade & Scale ranges
Advance Gen 3 range

Diagram - Configuring network Proxmox ve high grade scale advance ranges

 

Explanations

Proxmox is a Debian-based distribution that relies on ifupdown2 for network configuration. In this guide, the network configuration will be modified via SSH and not via the web interface.

We will:

  • connect via SSH on Proxmox
  • create a bond interface (only for the High Grade & Scale ranges)
  • create a bridge interface connected to the bond
  • allow packet forwarding between interfaces
  • add routes to the additional IPs
Tip

Click each step to expand the full instructions.

Step 1: Log in to the Proxmox server via SSH

Log in to the Proxmox server via SSH:

ssh PUB_IP_DEDICATED_SERVER
Step 2: Allow packet forwarding

Enable the ip_forward sysctl parameter. To do this, we recommend modifying the sysctl.conf configuration file.

Add the following line to /etc/sysctl.conf:

# Enable ip_forward
net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1

Next, reload the sysctl configuration:

sysctl -p
Step 3: Configure the network interfaces
High Grade & Scale ranges
Advance Gen 3 range
vi /etc/network/interfaces
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# Public interfaces
auto bond0
iface bond0 inet manual
        bond-slaves ens33f0 ens35f1
        bond-mode 802.3ad
        bond-lacp-rate fast
        bond-xmit-hash-policy layer3+4

auto vmbr0
iface vmbr0 inet static
        address PUB_IP_DEDICATED_SERVER/32
        gateway 100.64.0.1
        # Define a private network used to communicate with the VMs,
        # it must not overlap with other private networks configured on the server
        address 192.168.0.1/24
        bridge-ports bond0
        bridge-stp off
        bridge-fd 0
        # Add a single Additional IP
        up ip route add ADDITIONAL_IP/32 dev $IFACE
        # Add an IP block
        up ip route add ADDITIONAL_IP_BLOCK/28 dev $IFACE

# Private interfaces
auto bond1
iface bond1 inet manual
        bond-slaves ens35f0 ens33f1
        bond-mode 802.3ad
        bond-lacp-rate fast
        bond-xmit-hash-policy layer3+4

auto vmbr1
iface vmbr1 inet manual
        bridge-ports bond1
        bridge-stp off
        bridge-fd 0

At this point, restart the network services:

systemctl restart networking.service
Info

When the networking service is restarted, VMs are not added back to the bridge. This is because Proxmox disconnects each VM from the bridges and does not reconnect them. To force the VMs to reconnect to the bridges, you can restart the VMs.

 

Client VM configuration example

The VM must be attached to the vmbr0 bridge.

Debian (ifupdown)
Ubuntu (netplan)

Contents of the /etc/network/interfaces file:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0

iface eth0 inet static
        address 192.168.0.2/24

iface eth0 inet static
        address ADDITIONAL_IP/32
        # The "src" option must be set so that packets reaching the Internet
        # have the public IP as source, instead of the private IP 192.168.0.2
        up ip route replace default via 192.168.0.1 dev $IFACE onlink src ADDITIONAL_IP
Step 4: Testing and validation

From now on, your virtual machines should be able to access the Internet from the additional IPs. They should also be reachable directly from the Internet using their additional IPs. The available bandwidth corresponds to the bandwidth available on your server's public interfaces and will not affect the private interfaces used for the vRack. This public bandwidth is shared with other virtual machines on the same host, as well as the Proxmox host itself.

To check your public IP, from the VM:

curl ifconfig.io
ADDITIONAL_IP # must return your additional ip
Info

You need to restart the VM's network services for the configuration to take effect.

 

Method 2: Additional IP via the vRack

This configuration is more flexible as you do not need to associate an Additional IP with a server, but with a vRack. This means that if you have multiple Proxmox virtualization servers and you want to migrate a VM from one server to another, you do not need to perform any action on OVHcloud APIs. The only requirement is for all servers to be connected to the same vRack.

Warning

NOTE: This configuration only works with a block of additional IPs. It is not possible to use a single Additional IP (/32) directly in the vRack. To use an Additional IP, it must be configured on a public interface and cannot be directly integrated into the vRack.

 

Requirements

 

Target configuration schema

Diagram - Configuring network Proxmox ve high grade scale advance ranges - step 3

 

Explanations

Proxmox is a Debian-based distribution that relies on ifupdown2 for network configuration. In this guide, the network configuration will be modified via SSH and not via the Web interface.

We will:

  • create a bond interface (only for the High Grade & Scale ranges)
  • create a bridge interface connected to the bond
Tip

Click each step to expand the full instructions.

Step 1: Log in to the Proxmox server via SSH
ssh PUB_IP_DEDICATED_SERVER
Step 2 - Option A: Configure the network interfaces (command line)
High Grade & Scale ranges
Advance Gen 3 range
vi /etc/network/interfaces
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# Public interfaces
auto bond0
iface bond0 inet static
        address PUB_IP_DEDICATED_SERVER/32
        gateway 100.64.0.1
        bond-slaves ens33f0 ens35f1
        bond-mode 802.3ad
        bond-lacp-rate fast
        bond-xmit-hash-policy layer3+4

# Private interfaces
auto bond1
iface bond1 inet manual
        bond-slaves ens35f0 ens33f1
        bond-mode 802.3ad
        bond-lacp-rate fast
        bond-xmit-hash-policy layer3+4

auto vmbr1
iface vmbr1 inet manual
        bridge-ports bond1
        bridge-stp off
        bridge-fd 0

At this point, restart the network services:

systemctl restart networking.service
Info

When the networking service is restarted, VMs are not added back to the bridge. This is because Proxmox disconnects each VM from the bridges and does not reconnect them. To force the VMs to reconnect to the bridges, you can restart the VMs.

 

Client VM configuration example

The VM must be attached to the vmbr1 bridge.

Debian (ifupdown)
Ubuntu (netplan)

Contents of the /etc/network/interfaces file:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
        address 46.105.135.97/28
        gateway 46.105.135.110
Step 2 - Option B: Configure the network interfaces (Proxmox interface)

You can also complete the configuration shown in Step 2 - Option A from the Proxmox web interface.

First, you need to create a Linux Bond (bond0 or bond1).

  1. Click Datacenter, <Your Node>, System, and then Network.

  1. Choose Create and select Linux Bond.

    Node - Configuring network Proxmox ve high grade scale advance ranges

  1. Select the slave interfaces (e.g., ens3f1np1).
  1. Choose the bonding mode (e.g., 802.3ad).
  1. Choose the hash policy (e.g., layer3+4).

  1. Enter the Name bond0 (or bond1 if you are creating multiple bonds).

    Create - Configuring network Proxmox ve high grade scale advance ranges

Next, you need to create a Bridge (vmbr0) to link to the bond.

  1. Click Create and select Linux Bridge.

  2. Set the Bridge Port to the bond you created (e.g., bond0).

  3. Set the IP address, gateway, and netmask according to your configuration.

  4. Enter the Name for the bridge (e.g., vmbr0).

    Warning

    NOTE: While creating the bridge, make sure VLAN aware is marked.

    Edit - Configuring network Proxmox ve high grade scale advance ranges

Then, edit the Linux Bond to add the external interfaces.

Edit - Configuring network Proxmox ve high grade scale advance ranges - step 2

The same steps are used to associate a bond with internal interfaces.

Finally, apply this new configuration.

  1. Once the bond(s) and bridge(s) are created, click Apply Configuration in the top right corner. This saves the changes and mimics the effect of restarting the network with the systemctl restart networking command on the OS side.
  2. Proxmox may prompt you to reboot or confirm the changes; follow the prompt carefully to avoid disconnecting.
Step 3: Testing and validation

From now on, your virtual machines should be able to access the Internet from the additional IPs. They should also be reachable directly from the Internet using their additional IPs.

To check your public IP, from the VM:

curl ifconfig.io
ADDITIONAL_IP # must return your additional ip
Info

You need to restart the VM's network services for the configuration to take effect.

 

Go further

Browse all the Dedicated Servers guides.

Browse the rest of the OVHcloud US documentation for guides on our other products and services.

Learn more about Dedicated Servers on the OVHcloud US website.