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I have a private gigabit LAN at a hosting company. It has 3 servers connected in the LAN: 2 public web servers (with public IP's) and one private database server with a private IP.

To access the private DB server, I remote desktop to a web server, then I RD a second time into the private server.

Question: is there any way i can make the database server get access to the internet (ie. the same gateway IP as the front end servers?) Do all i need to do is add the gateway to the database server, while leaving that database IP as a private ip address?


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3 Answers

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Could you provide a diagram? If the two web servers have public IPs, and the database server has a private IP, that would imply that the database server is on a different subnet to the other two, which in turns implies that there is a router between them. Alternatively, the two web servers may have multiple network cards; one for the 'public' side and one for the 'private' side.

Regarding your question, if all you need is outbound internet access for browsing, it may be possible to install a web proxy (e.g. Squid)on one of your public machines, and configure the private machine's proxy settings accordingly.

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AH! i could use a proxy server!! perfect :) i forgot about that :)!!! –  Pure.Krome May 8 '09 at 5:43
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You would probably need to setup internet connection sharing (aka masquerading / pat) on one of the servers with a public address. You mention remote desktop so I am assuming you are running windows. For 2003 see this, for 2008 see this.

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The link talks about ICS with 2 NICS. is it possible to do this with one nic? –  Pure.Krome May 6 '09 at 10:20
I don't think doing ICS with a single network adapter is possible. As an alternative you could setup a proxy server on one of the boxes with a public ip address. –  Zoredache May 6 '09 at 16:21
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I'd seriously consider dropping in a middle-ground/DMZ server and network between the 'red-side'/public servers and your 'green-side'/secure server. That will allow you to properly firewall each zone and significantly reduce your security risk. Of course you could always just carry on doing what you're doing now if it's not that big a deal.

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Hi. Um, I'm not sure I understand what you mean :( I don't think i've got a middle dmz. i've got my web servers in the public (ie. public IP's) and my db in the private (ie. private IP). ???? –  Pure.Krome May 6 '09 at 23:19
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