Is ZeroTier the answer to my prayers?

Community Support
#1

Hi!
I’m migrating a live production infrastructure from on-premise to cloud and the issues I face are the continuation of service whilst moving virtual machines from the on-premise Hyper-V servers into a Data Centre.
The existing infrastructure is a Windows domain so has internal DHCP, DNS etc.
This means that the only way to do this really includes a lot of downtime as I need to basically lift and shift everything across at the same time and then use a VPN between the site and the datacentre for client connectivity.
Then I came across ZeroTier!
I read that I get ZeroTier up and running on an VM and use it to bridge the current network with the ZeroTier network.
If this is the case, can I then move one machine at a time with much less downtime as all services will still be available between the networks?

I wanted to test this out as it could be exactly the solution I needed, but my lack of knowledge and ability has prevented me from seeing any success so far.
That’s where this post comes in:

  • Am I on the right track here, is this possible?
  • Can anybody help me with this (I’m willing to pay for support)?

I’ve followed this guide: https://zerotier.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/SD/pages/7471125/Layer+2+Bridging+of+Ethernet+and+ZeroTier+Networks+on+Linux
I have added my laptop, the ZT Bridge VM and a Server to ZT. I can’t ping the ZT Bridge from my laptop, but I can ping the server.
From the server I can ping the ZT Bridge and my laptop.
From the ZT Bridge I can’t ping the Server or my laptop.

Please help!

#2

I am not an expert on the topic of bridging, but the guide you have followed is old and there is a newer guide available HERE. I would recommend using something more powerful than a Raspberry Pi though, since you would probably have higher loads on the bridge.

@zt-travis, you wrote the article I linked, perhaps you have a better understanding of bridging and the possibilities of ZeroTier.

#3

Thanks very much, I looked at the article but can I replace the Raspberry Pi with a VM and still use the same guide?
Would I still just use the single NIC?
Thanks again

#4

Yes, you can use the same article, the only difference is that the VM is virtual and the Raspberry Pi is physical, otherwise the steps should be the same, the OS that you are using might make it a bit different. But if you are using any Debian based OS the steps should be the same. If you are using RedHat or CentOS for example, then you would need to change some of the commands to match their respective commands.

You can still just use a single NIC, yes, that’s possible. But ZeroTier creates a second NIC, which you must ALSO use. If you don’t have a “physical” NIC (the one the VM perceives as a physical NIC), then you won’t be able to connect to the internet, and therefore not be able to use ZeroTier.

#5

Thanks for your reply, I’ve followed the guide but unfortunately I just can’t get it working.
Is there anywhere I can get paid support?
Thanks

#6

You can pay for support here: https://www.zerotier.com/pricing/

#7

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