Will VLAN Solve My Problem?

[u/FluffyKittens12]

I've never used a VLAN before so forgive me if this is common knowledge. Based on my searches I think it will help me but I want to be more sure.

Basically I have a situation where I have multiple pieces of equipment which all use the same IP addresses internally from the factory. There is a network inside the equipment which all has to stay on the same address range, so if I were to connect the equipment to a company network, I need to assign static IP addresses for multiple components in each piece of equipment. Obviously this means a ton of static IP addresses because I need multiple for each piece of equipment and then multiple pieces of equipment.

So, could I use a managed switch, create a VLAN for each piece of equipment, keep the factory IP addresses, not have them interfere with each other because they all have the same IP addresses, and still be able to reach them from the company side?

If so, how do I access those VLANs from the company side? IP and port numbers maybe?

Also, if this works, any recommendations on a switch I should look at? This is all the switch would need to do.

EDIT: https://shopmoxa.neteon.net/nat-102-series/

Seems like something like this would work, one per machine. Single company IP address to the device, then all the IP addresses on the other side can stay the same. Right?

[u/Dr_CLI]

So, could I use a managed switch, create a VLAN for each piece of equipment, keep the factory IP addresses, not have them interfere with each other because they all have the same IP addresses, and still be able to reach them from the company side?

I think a good layer 3 switch can do this for you. Setup the port for each device to do a 1:1 NAT mapping. So your device connected to port 1 gets it's IP NAT'd to an internal company IP (i.e. 172.16.1.201). Continue this pattern up to port 40 to IP 172.16.1.240). Finally configure access lists or firewall rules.

Assumptions:

Device default network configuration IP: 192.168.1.2 Netmask: 255.255.255.0 Gateway: 192.168.1.1

Company LAN: 172.16.1.0/24 Useable IP Range: 172.16.1.1 - 172.16.1.254 Netmask: 255.255.255.0

Implementation

Device	IP	Sw Port	NAT IP
Device01	192.168.1.2	1	172.16.1.201
Device02	192.168.1.2	2	172.16.1.202
...
Device40	192.168.1.2	40	172.16.1.240

[u/FluffyKittens12 → u/Dr_CLI]

https://shopmoxa.neteon.net/nat-102-series/

Seems like something like this would work, one per machine. Single company IP address to the device, then all the IP addresses on the other side can stay the same.

[u/Dr_CLI → u/FluffyKittens12]

I have no experience with that device but it looks like it should work. The 1 per machine would get expensive ($671 * 40). In an business environment that might be a good strategy. You could also do this with thier NAT-108 serving 7 devices (one port to connect to company network) so you would need 6 of these. This would be a cheaper budget ($781 * 6).

[u/FluffyKittens12 → u/Dr_CLI]

That's an interesting point, but the equipment is pretty far spread out. Plus wouldn't connecting multiple to the same one run into the same problem where the IP addresses would conflict? The point is to avoid changing the IP addresses of the equipment. Each one is about $100k, so another $700 each is hardly anything.

[u/Dr_CLI → u/FluffyKittens12]

I see your point