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vRack (virtual rack) is OVHcloud’s private Layer 2 network technology. It lets you interconnect OVHcloud services — across different product lines and regions — over an isolated network that is separated from the public internet and from other customers.
vRack provides a Layer 2 (Ethernet) network. You control IP addressing, VLANs, and routing within it. OVHcloud provides the infrastructure; you configure the network topology.

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Compatible products

Dedicated Servers

Connect bare metal servers in the same or different data centres over a private backbone.

Public Cloud Instances

Attach Public Cloud instances to a vRack to enable private communication between cloud and bare metal.

Managed Bare Metal (VMware)

Extend your private VMware environment into the vRack for hybrid connectivity.

VPS

Connect VPS servers into a vRack private network alongside other services.

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Use cases

  • Hybrid infrastructure: connect dedicated servers and Public Cloud instances in a single private network.
  • Private database tier: place database servers on the vRack without exposing them to the public internet.
  • Cross-product HA clusters: build high-availability clusters spanning different OVHcloud product lines.
  • Secure inter-service communication: route traffic between services (load balancers, application servers, storage) privately.
  • Multi-region architectures: extend a vRack across regions to enable private communication between geographically distributed services.

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Initial vRack setup

1

Order a vRack

In the OVHcloud Control Panel, navigate to Network > vRack. Click Order to provision a vRack. The vRack itself is free; bandwidth usage within the vRack may be subject to charges depending on your products.You will receive a vRack reference number in the format pn-XXXXXXX.
2

Add services to the vRack

Open your vRack from the Network > vRack section. Click Add a service to see the list of eligible services in your account.Select the services you want to connect (dedicated servers, Public Cloud projects, Hosted Private Cloud, etc.) and confirm. Each service added to the vRack becomes reachable on the shared Layer 2 network.
Adding services to a vRack does not interrupt running workloads — the vRack interface is added alongside existing network interfaces.
3

Configure IP blocks

Once services are added, assign IP addresses within the vRack. You can either:
  • Use private RFC 1918 address ranges (e.g. 10.0.0.0/8, 192.168.0.0/16) that you configure yourself.
  • Route an Additional IP block through the vRack for public-facing services hosted on private interfaces.
Configure each server’s private network interface with an IP address in your chosen range. For Public Cloud instances, create a private network in your project with the VLAN and CIDR you want, then attach instances to it.
4

Configure VLANs (optional)

vRack supports 802.1Q VLAN tagging (VLAN IDs 1–4000). Use VLANs to segment traffic between different services on the same vRack.On a dedicated server running Linux, configure a VLAN interface:
ip link add link eth1 name eth1.100 type vlan id 100
ip addr add 10.0.100.1/24 dev eth1.100
ip link set eth1.100 up
For a persistent configuration, add the VLAN to /etc/network/interfaces or your distribution’s equivalent network configuration file.

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IP blocks within a vRack

You can route OVHcloud Additional IP blocks through a vRack. This lets you assign public IP addresses to services connected to the vRack without exposing the servers’ primary interfaces directly. To configure an IP block in a vRack on a Linux dedicated server, bring up the vRack interface and add a route: 
# Bring up the private (vRack) interface
ip link set eth1 up

# Add the IP block route via the vRack
ip route add <ip_block>/<prefix> dev eth1
Services within the vRack can then use addresses from that block as their public-facing IPs via routing or VRRP.

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VLANs in a vRack

VLANs let you create logical network segments within a vRack. This is useful when you want to isolate traffic between different environments (production, staging, management) or between different customers in a shared infrastructure.

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VLAN limits

  • Valid VLAN IDs: 2 to 4094
  • VLAN null (untagged) is also supported
  • Each VLAN ID must be unique within a vRack Services subnet

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Linux VLAN configuration

# Create a VLAN interface on the vRack physical interface
ip link add link eth1 name eth1.200 type vlan id 200
ip addr add 172.16.0.1/24 dev eth1.200
ip link set eth1.200 up
For persistence across reboots, create an interface configuration file. For example, on Debian/Ubuntu in /etc/network/interfaces: 
auto eth1.200
iface eth1.200 inet static
    address 172.16.0.1
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    vlan-raw-device eth1

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Bandwidth management

Bandwidth within the vRack depends on the products connected. Contractual bandwidth guarantees are provided by individual OVHcloud products (such as bare metal servers, Hosted Private Cloud clusters, or Public Cloud instances) rather than by the vRack itself.vRack Services (the managed services gateway feature) does not directly guarantee bandwidth between managed services and consuming hosts — bandwidth is determined by the endpoints on each side.
The vRack network supports Jumbo Frames with an MTU of 9000 bytes, which can reduce CPU overhead and improve throughput for high-bandwidth workloads.To enable Jumbo Frames on a Linux interface:
ip link set eth1 mtu 9000
To make this persistent, add mtu 9000 to the interface definition in your network configuration file.
All devices communicating over the vRack must be configured with the same MTU. If one endpoint uses MTU 1500 and another uses MTU 9000, packet fragmentation or drops will occur.

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vRack Services and Service Endpoints

vRack Services is an extension of vRack that lets you expose OVHcloud managed services (such as Enterprise File Storage) with a private IP address on your vRack. Traffic to those managed services never leaves the private network. Setting up a vRack Service Endpoint requires three components:
  1. vRack Services resource — activated in a specific region and associated with a vRack.
  2. Subnet — a private IP range (/24) within which managed service IPs are allocated.
  3. Service Endpoint — the private IP endpoint for a specific managed service.

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Limitations

  • A vRack Services resource is tied to a single region.
  • You cannot create multiple vRack Services in the same region within the same vRack.
  • Maximum of 20 vRack Services resources per account.
  • Service ranges within a subnet must be between /27 and /29.
  • Subnets must conform to RFC 1918 and must not overlap within the same vRack Services resource.

Additional IPs (Failover IPs)

Move public IP addresses between services using Additional IPs over a vRack.

Block Storage

Attach persistent block storage to instances connected to a vRack.

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