Manage external networks

1 Introduction to external networks
2 Display external networks
3 Create an external network
4 Create static routes
5 Add IP addresses
6 Make IP addresses available
7 Make an external network the default
8 Modify an external network
9 Delete an external network
10 How to put an IP on a denylist
11 Pages related to networking

Introduction to 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

Define the external network in the network infrastructure (e.g. VLANs in the switch or in a network manager.
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.

In vCloud Director, you can onboard, create, synchronize, and delete external networks at the the Virtual datacenter level. In vCloud external networks may represent different networks, such as Org vDC networks routed through the Edge.

Display external networks

To display external networks in private cloud:

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

To display external networks in vCloud Director

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

For the Networks list:

To scroll through the networks, use the page number and arrow buttons at the bottom of the list.
To search and filter, in the Search box enter text and wildcards in network names.

On the IP addresses page:

To sort by a column, click on the column header.
To filter results by any field, enter text in the search box.
To navigate through the pages, use the page scroll.

Create an external network

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.

For vCloud Director, you can manage external networks in the Virtual datacenters view. See VMware vCloud Director integration

To create an external network:

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

Click the + add button and enter the details

Field	Value
Name	A name with up to 128 characters
IPv6	IPv6 network. When you create an IPv6 network, the platform does not create any IP addresses.
Strict	For IPv6 networks only to automatically generate EUI64 IP addresses.
Net. Address	The network address
Netmask (CIDR)	The network mask in CIDR format. For IPv4, from 16 to 30 inclusive, and for IPv6, either 64, 56, or 48
Gateway	The gateway of the network must be within the network range (address and netmask). When you create an IPv4 network, the platform will create an IP address for the gateway.
Tag	The tag of the network in the infrastructure, e.g. VLAN tag
Check	Check tag availability for all racks of the datacenter. You should define each network with the same tag on all racks. Green = available, Yellow = in use, Red = unavailable
Network service type	The Network Service Type represents a network interface on the hypervisors or a DvSwitch, see Networking guide
Unmanaged	Select to manage IP addresses outside of the platform. E.g. own DHCP server
Enterprise	The owner enterprise that will use this external network
Device	Select the device that defines a network virtualization system in the cloud platform. VMs deployed on this network must allow traffic to the appropriate ports for the virtualization system's connection, e.g. DHCP
Primary DNS	Address of the Primary DNS server
Secondary DNS	Address of the Secondary DNS server
DNS suffix	The default DNS suffix
Restricted	Select so that users require the privileges to Attach NICs in restricted networks and/or Detach NICs from restricted networks
Excluded from firewall	Select to define a network where VM firewall policies will not apply
Static Routes	Select Define to add or delete static routes

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.

Add IP addresses

To add IP addresses to your network:

Go to Infrastructure → Private → select Datacenter → Servers view → Network → External or Public
Click the + Add button in the top right-hand corner
Complete the dialog

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.

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:

Go Infrastructure → Private → select datacenter → Servers view → Network → select network type
Click Available IPs
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

Make an external network the default

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).

Modify an external network

To modify an external network:

On the External page, select the network in the Networks list
Click the pencil edit button

You can modify the following fields if there are no VMs deployed in the network.

Field	Description

Field	Description
Name	The name of the external or unmanaged network
Gateway	IPv4 only. The gateway of the network must be an IP address inside the range defined by the network address and the network mask
Tag	The VLAN or VXLAN tag to use for this network
Network service type	The Network Service Type is a group of network interfaces on the hypervisors that this network will use.
Enterprise	The enterprise that will use this network
Device	The device pointing to the network virtualization system for the SDN integration
Restricted	Select to restrict this network so that only users with the privileges to manage NICs in restricted networks can use these addresses on VMs

You can modify these fields at any time but the changes will only apply to VMs deployed after the changes are made.

Field	Description

Field	Description
Primary DNS	The address of the primary DNS server for your network
Secondary DNS	The address of the secondary DNS server for your network
DNS suffix	The DNS suffix for your network

Delete an external network

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:

Select it in the Networks list on the External page
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.

How to put an IP on a denylist

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:

Select one or more IP addresses
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.

Pages related to networking

Introduction to Abiquo Networking
Administrator guide to configuring networks: Network
Platform network administration: Networks including Abiquo virtual networks
- Private networks in virtual datacenters: Manage networks
- See Create unmanaged networks in Network provisioning guide
- Manage public networks