Learn how to setup the Bridge Network on OVH. Our OVH Support team is here to help you with your questions and concerns.

OVH Bridge Network Configuration Setup for VMs

Are you looking for a guide to set up bridged networking on a virtual machine hosted in the OVHcloud environment?

You have come to the right place! This guide walks you through the process of assigning an OVH failover IP to a VM, ensuring it connects properly to the public internet.

To configure bridged networking on a virtual machine using a failover IP on the OVHcloud infrastructure. This is useful when running a hypervisor, such as Proxmox VE, VMware ESXi, or Citrix XenServer, and you want to assign public IP addresses directly to your VMs.

For any OVH-related service delays, such as verification holds, refer to our guide on OVH “Awaiting Documents” status.

Before we begin, we need:

• A dedicated server with a hypervisor installed (e.g., Proxmox, VMware ESXi, or XenServer)
• At least one Additional (Failover) IP address routed to the server
• Access to the OVHcloud Control Panel or the OVHcloud API

Regardless of the virtualization platform used, the general steps remain the same.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Create a Virtual MAC Address

First, log in to the OVHcloud Control Panel and go to the IP section.

Then, find the Additional IP we want to assign to our VM and create a Virtual MAC address.

• Proxmox users should select OVH MAC.
• VMware ESXi users should choose VMware MAC.

2. Configure the vMAC in Your Virtual Machine

Assign the vMAC to the VM’s virtual NIC via the hypervisor interface.

3. Configure Networking Inside the VM

Then, log in to the VM and run the following commands :

ip link set NETWORK_INTERFACE_HERE up

ip addr add FO_IP_HERE dev NETWORK_INTERFACE_HERE

ip route add GW_IP_HERE dev NETWORK_INTERFACE_HERE

ip route add default via GW_IP_HERE dev NETWORK_INTERFACE_HERE

Remember to replace the following:

• `NETWORK_INTERFACE_HERE`: Name of the network interface. We can check with `ip link`.
• `FO_IP_HERE`: The Additional IP address.
• `GW_IP_HERE`: Gateway IP — use the main server IP with the last octet changed to `.254`.

For example:

ip link set bob728 up

ip addr add 178.45.42.174 dev bob728

ip route add 152.131.179.254 dev bob728

ip route add default via 149.202.199.254 dev bob728

Troubleshooting Tips

If the VM is still not connecting to the internet, try this diagnostic approach:

1. Reboot the server in rescue mode from the OVHcloud Control Panel.
2. Set up a test bridge interface to verify the IP address.

   
   
   ip link add name test-bridge link eth0 type macvlan
   
   ip link set dev test-bridge address MAC_ADDRESS
   
   ip link set test-bridge up
   
   ip addr add ADDITIONAL_IP/32 dev test-bridge
   
   
3. Then, from an external device, try pinging the Additional IP.

   If the IP responds, the issue likely lies in the VM’s network config. If not, there may be a host-level or OVH-side issue.

Additionally, ensure that the domain’s DNS settings, including SPF records, are correctly configured to prevent outbound email issues. Learn how to set them up with this OVH SPF record guide.

In case something critical is lost during configuration, here’s how to recover a deleted database backup, a must-have reference if you’re hosting services on your VMs.

[Need assistance with a different issue? Our team is available 24/7.]

Conclusion

Correctly configuring bridged networking on OVH requires both control panel adjustments (like vMACs) and manual VM network configuration. Once set up correctly, it allows flexible and secure IP routing for our virtual infrastructure.

In brief, our Support Experts demonstrated how to setup a Bridge Network on OVH.