Manage External Networks

External Networks belong to a single enterprise and in private cloud they belong at the datacenter infrastructure level.

To create an external network

1. Define the external network in the network infrastructure (e.g. VLANs in the switch or in a network manager.
2. Create the corresponding network in the multi-cloud platform with the same tag (e.g. VLAN tag or VXLAN tag).

The IP addresses that you use in external networks may be private or public addresses. So you may use these networks to communicate between VDCs of the same tenant or with networks outside of the platform. You can also define the same network in more than one datacenter in the platform.

To display external networks in private cloud:

1. Go to Infrastructure → Private → select datacenter → Network → External
   

To display external networks in vCloud Director

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → Network → External. Networks that have been deleted in the provider display in gray text.

External networks belong to a single enterprise and may have public or private IP address ranges used in more than one virtual datacenter.

An external network in the platform represents a network that exists in the infrastructure, so you will need the network details:  

• network address
• gateway

• VLAN or VXLAN tag.

To create an external network:

1. Go to Infrastructure → Private → select Datacenter → Servers view → Network → External

2. Click the + add button  and enter the details
   

   For more details see GUI Create network External

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

1. Select the Define checkbox. 
2. 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 192.168.0.250
   
   
   For more details see GUI Create network Static routes
   
   
3. Click Save and the platform will add the static routes to the VM network configuration. 

To add IP addresses to your network:

1. Go to Infrastructure → Private → select Datacenter → Servers view → Network → External or Public
2. Click the + Add button in the top right-hand corner
3. Complete the dialog
   
   For more details see GUI Create IP addresses

After you create public, external, or NAT IP addresses, they will be available to users for their virtual datacenters.  

We recommend that you should make unavailable any IP addresses that will be used for administration purposes, for example, the IPv4 gateway network address.

To edit the available IP addresses:

1. Go Infrastructure → Private → select datacenter → Servers view → Network → select network type
2. Click Available IPs
3. The Edit network dialog for Available IPs will open and by default, all IPs are in the Available column

• To move an IP, select it and click a single arrow button
• To move all IPs in the direction of the arrows, use the double arrow buttons

To modify an external network:

1. On the External page, select the network in the Networks list 
2. Click the pencil edit button
   
   For more details see GUI Edit network External

Before you begin, check that there are no VMs using IP addresses from this network. You cannot delete an external network if any of its IP addresses are in use on VMs.

To delete an external network:

1. Select it in the Networks list on the External page
2. Click the trash bin delete button.

If an onboarded network has been deleted in the provider, its name will display in light gray text. If a VM is using an IP from this network, then you cannot deploy the VM.

If there are no VMs using the IPs of an external network that was already deleted in the provider, to delete the network in the platform, select it and click the delete button.

In private cloud, to prevent tenants from obtaining and/or using an IP address, you can quarantine it, which is similar to putting it on a deny list.

To change quarantine status:

1. Select one or more IP addresses
2. Click the quarantine (!) symbol and confirm

Selected IPs that were not in quarantine will be put into quarantine. Selected IPs that were already in quarantine will be removed from quarantine.