How to Install a Software Router on Windows Server 2012 Part 2

This post will be the final post on installing a Software Router on Windows Server 2012.  Here we will configure our static routes and test our configuration.

We left off on our previous post with the basic network configuration and installation of our Software Router on Windows Server 2012.  We will continue from our last post by launching the Getting Started Wizard to configure our router.

• After clicking the link to the getting started wizard you will probably find that nothing happened and the notification cleared and went to a completed action.  So, we will just launch the router from the tools menu from here on out because there seems to be an issue launching the Wizard from the notification icon  

Initializing the Software Router in Windows Server 2012

• Launch the Routing and Remote Access MMC by clicking on the Tools menu from Server Manager and Click Routing and Remote Access

• Routing and Remote Access:  Right-click the Computer Name  and select Configure and Enable Routing and Remote Access
• This will launch the wizard that previously failed to launch
• Routing and Remote Access Server Setup Wizard: Click Next
• Configuration: Select Custom Configuration and Click Next
• Custom Configuration: Check the LAN routing box and Click Next
• Completing the Routing and Remote Access Server Setup Wizard: Click Finish
• This will launch a new window asking to start the routing service.  Click Start service

Configuring Routes from Routing and Remote Access in Windows Server 2012

After initializing the service you will see a green up arrow on the computer name and the router is ready to be configured.

Note: The Routing and Remote Access service is automatically set to a Startup Type of Automatic (Delayed Start) and can take up to 3 minutes to start after a reboot.

Before configuring routes know this one very important thing.  

The interface you select for the static route needs to be the interface that is connected directly to the destination network.

Our Networks are as follows:

• Outside:
• Name: Outside
• IP: 10.100.205.12
• SNM: 255.255.255.0
• GW: 10.100.205.1
• Inside 1:
• Name: AZ VLAN
• IP: 10.100.200.1
• SNM: 255.255.255.0
• GW: N/A
• Inside 2:
• Name: TX VLAN
• IP: 10.100.201.1
• SNM: 255.255.255.0
• GW: N/A
• Inside 3:
• Name: FL VLAN
• IP: 10.100.202.1
• SNM: 255.255.255.0
• GW: N/A

Setting the default route

The default route is the route taken if the router does not know how to find the network in question.  For example, for internet access to an IP of 205.168.22.123 this router will not have a static route configured and therefore does not know where to send the traffic.  So, we have to create a default route for all unknown networks.

• Right Click IPv4 > Static Routes and Click New Static Route
• Interface: Select the Outside Interface
• Destination: 0.0.0.0
• Network Mask: 0.0.0.0
• Gateway: Set this to the Gateway of the Outside interface (10.100.205.1 in our example)

Setting the remaining static routes

The remaining static routes will tell our traffic how to find our other networks.  We will put in the network IP and subnet mask with the gateway being the IP address of the interface we are pointing the traffic at.

We are now ready to test communication between our hosts.  In server 2012 we will need to either disable the firewall on our hosts or enable ping before we can ping each host.  

Here is a screenshot of our successful tests:

This concludes installing and configuring a software router on Windows Server 2012.

I hope this was helpful and informative to you and I would appreciate any feedback you may have.

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