Networking

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 Abiquo Server and Abiquo Remote Services to the hypervisors that they manage. The platform also monitors infrastructure and VMs on this network. And it also deploys VM templates over this network.

• Service Network: contains the virtual networks (VLANs) for the cloud

• Public Network: used to connect VMs to the Internet. This network can include multiple public VLANs and different subnets of routable Internet addresses.

• Storage Network: (optional) used to connect the hypervisors to external storage devices with user volumes and persistent VM disks

These networks are shown in the following network topology diagram

Open

Cloud networks

Cloud networks are the virtual networks that administrators configure to deliver self-service IP addresses to the VMs.

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. Used in private cloud with standard networking and integrations.

• Unmanaged Networks with IP addresses managed outside of Abiquo only, and assigned to a single tenant. Used in private cloud

• Public Networks with public IP addresses and Internet access and can be shared by multiple tenants. Used in private cloud

• Public IPs in public cloud, such as AWS Elastic IPs.  

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 networks

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 VM 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 with cloud-init and hypervisor tools, requiring compatible templates, or a custom guest setup method. 

Software defined networking integrations in Abiquo

Abiquo has integrations with software defined networking (SDN) systems such as VMware NSX, providing easy to configure network blueprints, firewalls, load balancers, NAT, and VPNs in private cloud datacenters or regions. Abiquo uses the network virtualization systems to manage private networks and IPs and to manage IPs of managed datacenter networks. 

Public cloud

Abiquo supports many different public cloud providers with different types of networking. For example, in AWS, Abiquo onboards VPCs, and creates VPCs with NAT support, and Abiquo manages Elastic IPs. In Google Cloud Platform, Abiquo supports Global (VPC) networks, and subnets.

See the Public cloud integrations and Public cloud providers documentation for more information about specific providers.

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