How to connect a VM to the internet using VMware ESXi

Warning

NOTE: If you are using a Scale or HG server, please refer to the following guide instead: How to Configure the Network on VMware ESXi with SCALE and HG Servers.

Requirements

A dedicated server with ESXi installed (hardware requirements are in the Broadcom documentation)
A VM in your ESXi environment (How to Create a VM in VMware ESXi)
An Additional IP through OVHcloud

OVHcloud Control Panel Access

Direct link: Public IP addresses
Navigation path: Bare Metal Cloud > Network > IP

Instructions

Adding a virtual MAC to an Additional IP

Find the Additional IP you wish to configure for your VM, click the more options ... button next to it, and choose the Add a virtual MAC option from the drop-down menu.

IP additional more options add

In the pop-up menu, change the Type to vmware and enter the name of your virtual machine.

Warning

NOTE: Please allow up to three minutes for the vMAC to populate in the OVHcloud Control Panel.

IP add vmac

Adding the virtual MAC to the VM in ESXi

In the ESXi Host Client, locate your VM in the Virtual Machines menu, select it, and ⏻ Power off.

Right-click the VM and select the Edit settings option from the drop-down menu.

VM more options

In the VM's settings, expand the Network Adapter 1 drop-down.

Change the MAC Address to Manual and enter the vMAC created in the previous step.

VM v mac manual

Tip

You can now ▶ Power on your VM!

Configuring network settings

The steps to configure the network on your virtual machine depend on the operating system you are using; select yours below.

Debian 11

Ubuntu 22.04+ / Debian 12+

AlmaLinux & Rocky Linux (8/9)

Windows Server

Info

If you don't know the name of your interface, you can find it using the following command:

$ ip add

First, open your interface configuration file in a text editor of your choice, using the following command:

$ sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces

Edit the interfaces file to make it appear as follows:

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).
 
source /etc/network/interfaces.d/*
 
# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
 
# The primary network interface
auto ens192
iface ens192 inet static
address 192.0.2.1
netmask 255.255.255.255
gateway 203.0.113.254
dns-nameservers 208.67.222.222 208.67.220.220

In this file, replace the following pieces of information as instructed:

address: Replace 192.0.2.1 with the Additional IP from the first step of this guide.
gateway: Replace 203.0.113.254 with your Dedicated Server's gateway.

Info
You need the first three octets of your Dedicated Server's IP address with a final octet of "254". For example, if your Dedicated Server's IP was 1.2.3.4, you would use 1.2.3.254 as your gateway.
dns-nameservers: The DNS name servers listed are from OpenDNS; feel free to use other name servers if you choose.

Now you will need to bring your NIC online. To do so, enter the following command:

$ sudo ip link set ens192 up

Finally, restart your networking service using the following command:

$ sudo systemctl restart networking

Ubuntu (22.04 and later) and Debian (12 and later) both use Netplan for network configuration.

To configure the network interface, open the network configuration file /etc/netplan/ in a text editor of your choice. The exact file name may vary depending on your image — in this example, it's called 50-cloud-init.yaml.

$ sudo vi /etc/netplan/50-cloud-init.yaml

Edit the file to make it appear as follows:

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# For more information, see netplan(5).
 
network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    ens160:
      dhcp4: no
      dhcp6: no
      addresses: [192.0.2.1/32]
      gateway4: 203.0.113.254
      nameservers:
        addresses: [208.67.222.222,208.67.220.220]
      routes:
      - to: 203.0.113.254/32
        via: 0.0.0.0
        scope: link

In this file, replace the following pieces of information as instructed:

ethernets: Replace ens160 with the name of your interface. If you don't know the name of your interface, you can find it using the following command:
```
$ ip add
```
addresses: Replace 192.0.2.1/32 with the Additional IP (in CIDR notation) from the first step of this guide.
gateway4: Replace 203.0.113.254 with your Dedicated Server's gateway.

Info
You need the first three octets of your Dedicated Server's IP address with a final octet of "254". For instance, if your Dedicated Server IP was 1.2.3.4, you would use 1.2.3.254 as your gateway.
nameservers: The DNS name server addresses listed are from OpenDNS; feel free to use other name servers if you choose.

Warning

NOTE: The additional IP is configured with a host-only (/32) netmask, and the gateway sits outside that subnet — this is expected for OVHcloud Additional IPs. The routes: section above tells Netplan to treat the gateway as directly reachable. Omitting it — relying on gateway4 alone — can leave the interface unable to reach the gateway.

Now apply the Netplan settings with the following command:

$ sudo netplan apply

First, navigate to the network-scripts directory using the following command:

$ cd /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts

Use the ls command to view the directory contents.

$ ls -al

Locate your interface file (e.g., ifcfg-ensXXX) and then open it in a text editor of your choice using the following command:

Warning

NOTE: In our example the interface file is ifcfg-ens192.

$ sudo vi ifcfg-ens192

Edit the interfaces file to make it appear as follows:

TYPE=Ethernet
PROXY_METHOD=none
BROWSER_ONLY=no
BOOTPROTO=none
DEFROUTE=yes
IPV4_FAILURE_FATAL=no
IPV6INIT=yes
IPV6_AUTOCONF=yes
IPV6_DEFROUTE=yes
IPV6_FAILURE_FATAL=no
IPV6_ADDR_GEN_MODE=stable-privacy
NAME=ens192
UUID=*DO NOT edit this field!*
DEVICE=ens192
ONBOOT=yes
IPADDR=192.0.2.1
NETMASK=255.255.255.255
DNS1=208.67.222.222
DNS2=208.67.220.220

In this file, check or replace the following pieces of information as instructed:

ONBOOT= Verify that is says yes.
BOOTPROTO= Verify that is says none.
IPADDR= Replace 192.0.2.1 with the Additional IP from the first step of this guide.
GATEWAY= Replace 203.0.113.254 with your Dedicated Server's gateway.

Info
You need the first three octets of your Dedicated Server's IP address with a final octet of "254". For instance, if your Dedicated Server IP was 1.2.3.4, you would use 1.2.3.254 as your gateway.
DNS1= and DNS2= The DNS name servers listed are from OpenDNS; Feel free to use whichever name servers you prefer.

Next, since the Additional IP uses a host-only (/32) netmask and the gateway sits outside that subnet, create a companion route file, route-ens192, in the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ directory to make the gateway reachable:

$ sudo vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/route-ens192

203.0.113.254 dev ens192
default via 203.0.113.254 dev ens192

Replace 203.0.113.254 with your Dedicated Server's gateway.

Info

You need the first three octets of your Dedicated Server's IP address with a final octet of "254". For instance, if your Dedicated Server IP was 1.2.3.4, you would use 1.2.3.254 as your gateway.

Next, enable the NIC by restarting the network service:

$ sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

In this step, we will be configuring our interface settings. To do this, navigate to the Server Manager. From the left-hand column, click the Local Server option.

Server manager - Connect VM internet using VMware ESXi

By default, the Ethernet0 field will read: IPv4 address assigned by DHCP, IPv6 enabled. This is exactly what we want to change, so click on this text.

Dhcp - Connect VM internet using VMware ESXi

Next, right-click on Ethernet0 and select the Properties option from the drop-down menu. From the ensuing menu, double-click the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) option.

IPv - Connect VM internet using VMware ESXi - step 4

This will allow you to configure your interface to use the IP address, gateway, and DNS name servers of your choice. Configure it as follows:

IP properties - Connect VM internet using VMware ESXi

Enter the following information in the dialog box, as shown in the picture:

IP address: Replace 203.0.113.32 with the Additional IP from the first step of this guide.
Subnet mask: Replace 255.255.255.248 with the correct netmask depending on the size of the block of IPs you have purchased. For example, if you are using a /28 block, put "240" in the last octet.
Default gateway: Replace 147.135.0.254 with the first three octets of your Dedicated Server's IP address with a final octet of "254".
DNS server addresses: The DNS nameservers listed are from OpenDNS; feel free to use other name servers here, if you choose.

Click OK after making these changes.

To test that the VM is fully connected to the Internet, ping example.com. If you get a response, you are good to go. If you do not, restart your VM and attempt the ping again.

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.