Manage public networks

Introduction to public networks

Public Networks allow the users of virtual datacenters to use Internet addressable public IP addresses in their virtual infrastructure. Users purchase or reserve public IPs for their enterprises in Virtual datacenters view. Public networks are not assigned to any specific enterprise in Abiquo and they cannot be set as the default network for an enterprise. They can be set as the default network for a virtual datacenter, but make sure that you have made enough public IP addresses available to the users and that the users have reserved enough public IP addresses for their VMs.

Display public networks

To display public networks:

Go to Infrastructure → Private → select datacenter → servers view → Networks → Public

You can filter the list using the search boxes above the Networks list. You can scroll through the network list using the page number and arrow buttons at the bottom of the list. And you can search for text to filter the list by network names.

On the right side of the screen, in the Public IPs pane, you will see details of the IPs of the selected network.

To sort by a column, click in the header of the column.
To filter the results by any field, use the Search button.
To navigate through the pages, use the page scroll

Create public networks

Before you begin:

Obtain the network details from your Network Administrator
- For NSX-T obtain the provider ID, which is the network path
- For other systems, obtain the network address, network mask and tag, gateway, and so on

To create a public network do these steps:

Go to Infrastructure → Private → select datacenter → servers view → Networks → Public
Click the + add button at the top of the Networks list
For NSX-T, first select the Device

Field	Value
Name	The name of the public VLAN with up to 128 characters
IPv6	To create an IPv6 network, select this checkbox
Strict	For IPv6 networks only. If you select Strict, the platform will automatically generate EUI64 IP addresses.
Address	The network address of the VLAN
Netmask	The network mask in CIDR format. For IPv4, the value can be from 16 to 30 inclusive, and for IPv6, enter a value of 64, 56, or 48
Gateway	The gateway of the network that must be within the range defined by the network address and the network mask
Tag*	Enter the VLAN or VXLAN tag to use for this network
Check	Click to check tag availability for all the racks of the Abiquo datacenter. Green: available Yellow: in use by other networks but can be reused Red: not available because it is excluded by rack configuration.
Network service type	Choose the Network Service Type, which assigns the network to network interfaces on the hypervisors
Device	Optional device that defines a network virtualization system that will manage the IP addresses of this network. They may be assigned using its DHCP service. Ensure that VMs deployed on this network allow traffic to the appropriate ports for a DHCP connection.
Primary DNS	Address of the primary DNS
Secondary DNS	Address of the secondary DNS
DNS suffix	The default DNS suffix
Restricted	Select to create a Restricted network so that users require privileges to Attach NICs in restricted networks and/or Detach NICs from restricted networks
Excluded from firewall	Select Excluded from firewall to define a network where VM firewalls will not apply
Static routes	Click "Manage" to add and modify static routes.
Provider ID	For NSX-T public networks, enter the path to the Tier 0 segment in the NSX-T system.

For NSX-T, you can register a network that your network administrator created in NSX-T.

Abiquo will reserve the first 20 addresses of this network for load balancers
- You cannot use a reserved address for a DHCP server

After you select the Device (nsxt-device), enter the Provider ID and select the Network service type.

Create static routes

To add a Static Route when you create or edit an IPv4 network:

Select the Define checkbox.
Enter the details of the static route.
For example, to add a static route to the network/netmask 1.1.1.0/24 via the gateway/next hop 10.10.100.1
1. Enter the destination Netmask, e.g. 255.255.255.0 (the above screenshot may differ)
2. Enter the destination Network ID, e.g. 1.1.1.0
3. Enter the Gateway IP, which is the next hop on your network, e.g. 10.10.100.1
Click Save and the platform will add the static routes to the VM network configuration.