In the private network Management tab, you can create a private network which connects two or more servers within the same data center. There is a section where the enabled servers in the private network are displayed. The available server section displays your servers which can be added to your private network. In this management tab, you will have the possibility to upgrade or downgrade the port speeds of enabled servers.

Create a private network

Leaseweb offers customers that have Dedicated or Bare Metal servers the possibility to create private network connections. Two or more servers within the same data center can easily be connected over dedicated network segments. VLAN technology ensures secure private connections.

This page will describe how to use the Customer Panel interface to manage your private network. For more information and specifications of the product, please see the Private Network page.

All actions mentioned on this page can also be performed using our extensive API interface. Please check the Developer Portal for all necessary documentation about using our API’s.

Private Network Overview page

Perform the following steps to get an overview of all the Dedicated & Bare Metal servers that have private network enabled:

1. In the menu bar, under Network, select Private Network.
   
2. The Private Network page displays.
   

Enabled servers

Here you can see the servers that are currently part of your private network.

Actions

The following actions are possible for Private Network-enabled servers:

DHCP Setting

It is possible to disable the DHCP server on the private network. This will also disable all other layer-3 services and turn your private network into a pure layer-2 Vlan.

To disable DHCP, click on the Edit icon a new window will pop up.

Change the option to disable and click OK. A success message will popup:

And the changes are applied immediately.

Change the port speed of your private network connection

In each line of the Private Network, the current port speed is shown.

Additionally, it is possible to upgrade or downgrade your private network port speed to 1Gbps / 100Mbps / 1Gbps. The upgrade will cost an additional fee per month.

1. To upgrade or downgrade your port speed click the link right of the displayed port speed 
   .
2. The port speed will be adjusted immediately. A success dialogue box will appear.
   
   
   • Sometimes it can take some time till the actual port speed is changed due to the speed of network devices. It should not be more than 2 minutes per port

The fee for the upgrade you have selected will appear on your next invoice.

Remove your server from the private network.

If you do not want the server configured in your private network anymore you can remove the server by selecting the Remove link. 

1. Select the Remove link.
   
2. The server will directly be disconnected from the private network. And a success dialogue will appear.
   
   • Sometimes it can take some time till the actual disconnection is done due to the speed of network devices. It should not be more than 2 minutes per port

Add a Dedicated Server to a Private Network

In the available server section, it is possible to add a Dedicated or Bare Metal server to a private network. The upgrade will cost an additional fee per month.

1. To add an available server to a private network click the Add link. 
   
2. The success dialogue box appears, displaying the ID of the new server added to the private network.
3. The server will be added to the private network immediately. Because communication with network devices is a bit slow it can take some time to have the configuration done. It should not take more than 2 minutes per server.

The fee for the added server will appear on your next invoice.

Configuring your server for Private Network

When a server is added to the Leaseweb Private Network, you will still need to configure an IP address on the server’s Private Network interface to communicate with other servers on the private network. This is done as follows:

Windows

In Windows, any network adapter that is not explicitly configured will use DHCP by default. After enabling Private Network for a server, you will see the adapter receive an IP address:

Linux

Debian and Ubuntu (except Ubuntu 18)

For Debian operating systems and its derivatives, edit the /etc/network/interfaces file and add the following lines:

allow-hotplug eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp

Where eth1 is the interface connected to the Private Network. It could have a different interface name.

After saving and closing, type ifup eth1 (Change interface name if different) to apply the changes. If all is well, you will see the interface receive an IP address:

root@localhost:~# nano /etc/network/interfaces
root@localhost:~# ifup eth1
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client 4.3.5
Copyright 2004-2016 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/eth1/9c:8e:99:08:9a:f6
Sending on   LPF/eth1/9c:8e:99:08:9a:f6
Sending on   Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 4
DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 16
DHCPREQUEST of 10.32.18.193 on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPOFFER of 10.32.18.193 from 10.32.18.221
DHCPACK of 10.32.18.193 from 10.32.18.220
bound to 10.32.18.193 -- renewal in 39073 seconds.

Ubuntu 18

With Ubuntu 18 Netplan is introduced, which changes the way network configurations are created within your Operating System. All configuration is done in a *.yaml file located in /etc/netplan.

Edit the *.yaml file with your favourite editor and add the following 4 lines.

  ethernets:
    eno2:
      dhcp4: yes
      dhcp6: no

Your *.yaml file should look like below.

Save your file after you edit it and apply the changes with the following command: sudo netplan apply.

root@host:~# cat /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml
# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# For more information, see netplan(5).
network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    eno1:
      dhcp4: no
      dhcp6: no
      addresses: [A.B.C.D/EE]
      gateway4: A.B.C.Z
      nameservers:
        addresses: [8.8.8.8]
  ethernets:
    eno2:
      dhcp4: yes
      dhcp6: no

CentOS

The network configuration is stored in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1, where eth1 is the interface connected to the Private Network. Edit this file and change ONBOOT=no to ONBOOT=yes

After saving and closing, type ifup eth1 to apply the changes. If all is well, you will see the interface receive an IP address:

[root@localhost ~]# nano /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1
[root@localhost ~]# ifup eth1
Determining IP information for eth1... done.
[root@localhost ~]# ip address show dev eth1
3: eth1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP qlen 1000
    link/ether 9c:8e:99:08:9a:f6 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 10.32.18.193/27 brd 10.32.18.223 scope global dynamic enp34s0
       valid_lft 86370sec preferred_lft 86370sec
    inet6 fe80::9e8e:99ff:fe08:9af6/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

BSD

The network configuration is stored in /etc/rc.conf or /etc/rc.conf.d/network. Edit this file and add the following line:

ifconfig_bge1="DHCP"

where bge1 is the interface connected to the Private Network

After saving and closing, type dhclient bge1 to apply the changes. If all is well, you will see the interface receive an IP address:

root@localhost:~ # ee /etc/rc.conf
[...]
"/etc/rc.conf" 7 lines, 233 characters
root@localhost:~ # dhclient bge1
DHCPDISCOVER on bge1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 6
DHCPDISCOVER on bge1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 10
DHCPOFFER from 10.32.18.221
DHCPREQUEST on bge1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67

ESXi

Please refer to the documentation of VMware: Creating Multiple Networks Within a Single ESXi Host

vCloud Private Cloud

If your vCloud private cloud is configured for private network, you will see an extra network in your virtual data center named “Leaseweb Private Networking”. 

Connect your virtual machines to this network to access other servers which are also connected to your private network. You can do this by adding an NIC to the virtual machine and selecting “Leaseweb Private Networking” as your network.

Technical details about private network

The Private Network is a site-wide, physically separate network, on which each customer is allocated their own VLAN. When a server is added to a private network, its corresponding switchport is added to the VLAN. This is always done “untagged” or “access” mode.

Additionally a DHCP service with a designated subnet is in the 10.x.x.x space provided for your convenience, however you are not required to use this. Since the connection is pure layer 2 Ethernet, you can also use static addressing with any IP space. There is no routing possible between the private network subnets of different customers.

Using VXLANs and Jumbo Frames is possible, see Jumbo Frames for details on how to configure this.