For a new chapter of my book on Veeam Availability Console, I created a second virtual datacenter and I needed to connect the two of them together with a vpn. I have many options, like using the embedded ipsec capabilities of the NSX Edge i have at both sites, as they both run vCloud Director, but I decided to use Veeam Powered Network (known as VeeamPN), in order to use this opportunity to learn more about it.

My networks however don’t have any DHCP service, as I deploy my VM’s as servers and I configure them manually or via automation tools like Terraform. So, I had to find a way to set a static IP in the appliance I just deployed.

First, once the appliance is deployed, let’s open its remote console and run:

ip addr add 192.168.128.21/24 dev ens160

This allows us to connect to the appliance at least from the same subnet, which can be reached from any of the other VM, or also from my remote computer as I have vpn access to my lab. Now, I’m able to open the VeeamPN Web interface at:

https://192.168.128.21

After login, I go into the system settings just to enable ssh, so I can launch shell commands more easily:

Then, from a computer on the same network, I can complete the network configuration:

route add default gw 192.168.128.1
rm /etc/resolv.conf
echo "nameserver 192.168.128.11" > "/etc/resolv.conf"

We added the default route to reach the gateway of our network, removed the default DNS configuration, and added our local DNS server. Obviously, set here the correct parameters for your own network.

Then, I tested the network by pinging a public server by its name, like www.google.com. Now I have a functioning network configuration, but WARNING, these settings are not saved so any reboot will reset them. We need to make them permanent. To do so, Irun these commands that I found this great post in the Veeam Forums, kudos to our user Jon Rhoades for posting it!

apt update
apt install vim -y
vim /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml

Set DHCP to No and add:

ens160:
      dhcp4: no
      addresses: [192.168.128.21/24]
      gateway4: 192.168.128.1
      nameservers:
        addresses: [192.168.128.11]

I can now safely reboot the appliance, as the settings will be kept permanently.