Virtual Lab on Internal Network but WITH Internet Access?

Discussion in 'Virtualization' started by jedinight2002, Jul 8, 2012.

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  1. jedinight2002

    jedinight2002 MDL Novice

    Jun 8, 2008
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    #1 jedinight2002, Jul 8, 2012
    I am sure that other people will have encountered this connundrum before. You setup your virtual lab (in my case a DC with dhcp and dns + SCCM2012 + bunch of clients), but in order to do the testing you want to do, you need internet access on some of the machines, but aside from that need to keep it on the internal network, so it doesnt interfere with you main network.

    The VM software I have available is Hyper-V, VMWorkstation or even Virtualbox, but the internet router on the main network is a standard retail one, so not a huge amount of features.

    Can anyone recommend a way to kind of slip internet access to one or more machines in the virtual lab, while still keeping the networks separate?

    Any advice here would be really appreciated, because in this instance the lab is effectively useless to me for the testing I need to do.

    Thanks all
     
  2. jedinight2002

    jedinight2002 MDL Novice

    Jun 8, 2008
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    #2 jedinight2002, Jul 8, 2012 (OP)
    I should say my prefered software is Hyper-V, so assistance getting internet access to one of more devices on the internal network on that would be the best
     
  3. jedinight2002

    jedinight2002 MDL Novice

    Jun 8, 2008
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    #3 jedinight2002, Jul 8, 2012 (OP)
  4. IceBlackIce

    IceBlackIce MDL Novice

    Jul 29, 2009
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    #4 IceBlackIce, Jul 8, 2012
    What I use to make is fire up a Pfsense VM acting as a GW with 2 NICs (one for the external network and the other for the lab environment network)
     
  5. Myrrh

    Myrrh MDL Expert

    Nov 26, 2008
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    #5 Myrrh, Jul 13, 2012
    Last time I did this, I built a little VM with two network adapters (one on internal virtual network, one on the real network) running Windows 2003, with RRAS enabled in NAT mode. It was the DHCP, DNS and gateway for the internal virtual network.
     
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  6. wizardofi

    wizardofi MDL Novice

    Apr 9, 2009
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    #6 wizardofi, Jul 17, 2012
    A monowall vm with two nics works great too. I had one inbound and one outbound to allow people into the QA network without interfering with Production, and the second monowall was outbound to the external firewall only to allow internet access. Cheap and easy.
     
  7. latidell

    latidell MDL Novice

    May 4, 2010
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    #7 latidell, Jul 30, 2012
    I always use this scenario for my labs. I use VMware workstation.

    I don't use DHCP on my lab but use static IPs for clients. This is because, when ever I do a training on-site, always there is a local DHCP server on the network. This can cause unwanted IP issues.

    Add a second NIC and bridge it to local network and leave it to take IP from the local network(if the local network has a DHCP server) where you have Internet access or assign static IP for accessing Internet.

    If you use a laptop with WiFi, make sure the Wireless network interface is bridged to the network where you have Internet access.

    This works even if there is a local proxy server for the Internet