Network provisioning guide

Cloud networks in private cloud datacenters

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 in private cloud 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.

• NAT Networks with NAT IP addresses, used with SDN devices

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

The external, unmanaged, NAT, and public networks may be collectively referred to as 'datacenter networks' because they are managed at the Abiquo datacenter level.

For each datacenter, the network administrator should design the configuration (e.g. VLAN tags, switches, SDN) that will be required.

In private cloud, you can use standard networking or software defined networking (SDN).

Standard networking

With standard networking, cloud networks are VLANs in the 'service network' that runs on the Abiquo platform networks. 
The administrator must configure the cloud platform switches to support the VLANs that make up the service network.  
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. 

When you create datacenter networks in Abiquo to register your network infrastructure, you must supply the network details and tag.

Software defined networking integrations in Abiquo

Abiquo has integrations with software defined networking (SDN) systems, such as VMware NSX-T, to provide easy to configure networks, firewalls, load balancers, NAT, and VPNs.
Abiquo uses the network virtualization systems to manage private networks and IPs, and to manage IPs of datacenter networks. 

When you create datacenter networks in Abiquo, to register your NSX-T networks, you must supply the network path.

Create public networks

You can make public IP addresses available to users as part of public networks.
Tenants can obtain these IP addresses for their virtual datacenters and you can charge them for reserved IP addresses.

Create an external network

Create static routes for external and public networks

Add IP addresses to external and public networks

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

Open

Enter the Number of IPs to create and the From IP address (the first in the range). The From IP address must be a new address that does not already exist in the network. After creating the first IP address, the platform will try to create the other IPs and it will skip any existing IP addresses. 

For example, if you have IP addresses in network 30.30.30.30, which are 30, 33, and 34 and then you request 3 new IPs from 30.30.30.31. The new IPs created should be as follows: 31, 32, 35. 

30.30.30.30

30.30.30.31

30.30.30.32

30.30.30.33

30.30.30.34

30.30.30.35

When you add IPv6 addresses on strict networks, you don't need to set the starting address. On non-strict IPv6 networks, Abiquo recommends that you create an automatic IP address, or you can enter a From IP address manually.

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Make IP addresses available

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

Open

Create unmanaged networks

In private cloud datacenters, unmanaged networks are a special type of external network with IP addresses that are allocated outside of the platform. Abiquo does not manage the IP addresses for VMs attached to these networks.

Before you begin, obtain the details of your network in the infrastructure, including the VLAN tag, network address, and gateway.

To create unmanaged networks do these steps:

1. Go to Infrastructure → Private → select Datacenter → Datacenter details → Network → External.

2. At the top of the External page, click the Add + button  

3. Complete the dialog as described, marking the Unmanaged checkbox.

To display IP addresses of NICS in unmanaged networks, add them:

• using the API; or

• during VM capture using the UI or API 

For strict IPv6 networks, you cannot add IP addresses, but the platform retrieves the MAC address from the hypervisor and uses that to generate an IPv6 address for display, which should be the same as the one allocated by the router system.

Create a NAT network

Display networks

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

On the IPs page, click on the header of a column to sort by that column, use the Search box to filter the results by any field, and navigate through the pages with the page scroll.

Make a network the default for an enterprise or virtual datacenter

You can make an external network the default for an enterprise in a datacenter (see Configure a location for an enterprise) or a virtual datacenter (See Manage Networks).

You can make a public or external network the default for a virtual datacenter (See Manage networks)

If the user deploys a VM without adding an IP address, Abiquo will automatically add one in the default network, and it will set the default gateway.