This page introduces Abiquo networking concepts by describing the platform networks that the system administrator configures in the infrastructure and the cloud networks created within the Abiquo platform.
Platform networks
The main platform networks to configure separately for the platform datacenters are:Management Network: used by the Abiquo platform components to manage the virtual resources. It connects the
to the hypervisors that are managed. Infrastructure and virtual machines are monitored on this network. Virtual machine templates are also deployed over this network.
- Service Network: contains the virtual networks (VLANs) for the cloud
- Storage Network: optionally used to connect the hypervisors to the iSCSI storage with user volumes and persistent virtual machine disks
- Public Network: used to connect virtual machines to the Internet. This network can include multiple public VLANs and different subnets of routable Internet addresses.
These networks are shown in the following network topology diagram
Cloud networks
In datacenters, cloud networks are the virtual networks that administrators configure to deliver self-service IP addresses to the virtual machines.
The cloud network types supported by Abiquo are as follows:
- Private Networks within virtual datacenters (in private and public cloud)
- External Networks accessible from outside the virtual datacenter and outside the platform, and assigned to a single tenant
- Unmanaged Networks with IP addresses managed outside of Abiquo only, and assigned to a single tenant
- Public Networks with public IP addresses and Internet access and can be shared by multiple tenants
- Public IPs in public cloud, such as AWS Elastic IPs
For more detailed descriptions of each network, please see Cloud networks
The external, unmanaged and public networks may be collectively referred to as datacenter networks because they are managed at the Abiquo datacenter level.
Cloud network configuration
In private cloud, you can use standard networking or software defined networking (SDN). In public cloud and cloud providers, Abiquo supports provider networking options.
Private cloud
In private cloud with standard networking, cloud networks are VLANs in the 'service network' that runs on the Abiquo platform networks. For each datacenter, the network administrator should design the configuration (e.g. VLAN tags, switches, SDN) that will be required. For standard networks, the administrator must configure the cloud platform switches to support the VLANs that make up the service network. When using standard networking you can configure virtual machine IP addresses using DHCP or guest setup. The default configuration is the DHCP server installed by Abiquo but you can also provide your own DHCP server. If a DHCP server is not found, Abiquo uses guest setup. Abiquo supports cloud-init and hypervisor tools as guest setup methods, requiring compatible templates. You can also use your own guest setup method.
Software defined networking integrations in Abiquo
Public cloud
Abiquo supports many different public cloud providers with different types of networking. In AWS, Abiquo onboards VPCs, and creates VPCs with NAT support, and Abiquo manages Elastic IPs. In OpenStack private cloud regions, you can use Neutron.
See the Public cloud integrations and Public cloud providers documentation for more information about specific providers.