A Guide to Setting up Internet Egress for PowerVS

Need to give your private PowerVS instances internet access? Don’t reinvent the wheel. Follow this high-level workflow based on Samuel Matzek’s implementation guide.

The Architecture: Private VM $\to$→ Private Network $\to$→ NAT VM (Dual NIC) $\to$→ Public Network $\to$→ Internet

Implementation Checklist:

• [ ] Network Setup: Ensure you have both a Public and a Private network created.
• [ ] The Gateway: Deploy a Linux VM with two Network Interface Cards (NICs)—one connected to the public side, one to the private side.
• [ ] OS Configuration:
  • Enable net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1 in /etc/sysctl.conf.
  • Configure iptables MASQUERADE rules to handle the traffic translation.
• [ ] Routing Table: Update the PowerVS Private Network route table so that all 0.0.0.0/0 (default) traffic is pointed toward the NAT VM’s private IP address.

Pro Tip: This setup is ideal for pulling updates (yum update, apt-get) and connecting to external APIs without needing a full-blown enterprise firewall deployment.

Full technical details and command snippets can be found here: Simple Internet Egress for PowerVS Private Network.