Binding a domain to a network interface controller (NIC)

Binding different customer domains to different NICs can resolve issues with device addressing. For example, if your two of your customer' domains have overlapping IP addresses, and you are using Network Manager on a single server to manage both of these networks, then by binding these two customer domains to separate NICs, you enable Network Manager to uniquely address these IP addresses.

About this task

For example, assume that you have two customers A and customer B, and these two customers have overlapping IP address ranges. For example, assume that they both have a router with IP address 192.168.1.1. You are using Network Manager on a single server to manage both customers networks. The problem is: how are Network Manager processes able to distinguish between these two devices. For example, if you ping the IP address 192.168.1.1 which customer router is pinged?

To resolve this and similar issues, perform the following steps:

Procedure

Install two separate NICs on the Network Manager server.
The cable from NIC A leads to customer A's network and the cable from NIC B leads to customer B's network.
Note: You might need to install more than two NICs. The steps given here are for illustrative purposes and apply to the example given earlier in this topic.
Assign NIC A to customer A's domain and NIC B to customer B's domain by adding the following lines to the $NCHOME/etc/precision/ServiceData.cfg configuration file.
```
SERVICE: IPv4BindAddress DOMAIN: CUST_A_DOMAIN ADDRESS: NIC_A_IP_ADDR PORT: 0 
SERVERNAME: itnmserver DYNAMIC: NO
SERVICE: IPv4BindAddress DOMAIN: CUST_B_DOMAIN ADDRESS: NIC_B_IP_ADDR PORT: 0 
SERVERNAME: itnmserver DYNAMIC: NO
```
Where:
- CUST_A_DOMAIN is the domain name for customer A.
- CUST_B_DOMAIN is the domain name for customer B.
- NIC_A_IP_ADDR is the IP address of the NIC assigned to customer A's domain.
- NIC_B_IP_ADDR is the IP address of the NIC assigned to customer B's domain.
This ensures that each domain will use a different NIC and the packets from each domain will go to the appropriate customer.
Save the $NCHOME/etc/precision/ServiceData.cfg configuration file.