Network provisioning guide

1 Flow chart
2 Before you begin
3 Abiquo networking concepts
4 Provision networks
- 4.1 Create external networks
- 4.2 Create public networks
- 4.3 Create static routes
- 4.4 Add IP addresses
- 4.5 Make IP addresses available
- 4.6 Set default networks for tenants
5 Related API tutorials

This guide describes how to provision standard datacenter networks for tenants in private cloud datacenters.

Flow chart

Before you begin

Before you provision networks:

Provision infrastructure. See Infrastructure provisioning guide
Provision tenants. See Tenant provisioning guide
For standard networking, configure switches and obtain network tags for cloud networks

Abiquo networking concepts

Cloud networks

In private cloud, the 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.

Datacenter networks are the external, unmanaged, NAT, and public networks because the platform manages them at the Abiquo datacenter level.

For each datacenter, the network administrator should design the configuration (e.g. network 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 networks (VLANs, VXANs, or similar) in the service network that is one of the Abiquo platform networks. The administrator must configure the cloud platform switches to support the cloud networks that make up the service network.

You can configure VM IP addresses using DHCP, dnsmasq, or guest setup. The default configuration is the DHCP server installed by Abiquo but you can install the DHCP remote service that uses dnsmasq instead. If a DHCP service 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.

Provision networks

This guide describes how to provision datacenter networks for tenants in private cloud datacenters with standard networking

If you have a separate network administrator role, check that they have the following privileges:

Privileges: Manage datacenter infrastructure elements, Manage datacenter infrastructure elements, Manage network elements

Create external networks

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.

With vCenter, you can create external networks:

When you deploy the first VM (default); OR
When you create the network, using a port-group device. In this case, you will also keep the network after you undeploy the last VM

For more details see Manage devices and Manage external networks

Before you begin:

For standard networking, configure switches, and obtain network details: Network address, Gateway, Network tag (such as VLAN or VXLAN tag).
Optionally, create a port-group device

To create an external network:

Go to Infrastructure → Private
Select a datacenter
Go to Network → External
Click the + add button at the bottom of the Networks list and enter the details as for a public network (as described in the above step)
For the Enterprise, select the owner tenant that will use this network

Create an external network without a device

Create public networks

You can make public IP addresses available to users as part of public networks. All tenants can obtain these IP addresses for their virtual datacenters and you can charge them for these reserved public IP addresses. A public network in the platform represents a network that exists in the infrastructure.

Before you begin:

For standard networking, configure switches, and obtain network details: Network address, Gateway, Network tag (such as VLAN or VXLAN tag).
For SDN with NSX-T, obtain the path to the network in NSX-T

To create a public network do these steps:

Go to Infrastructure → Private
Select a datacenter → Networks → Public
Click the + add button at the bottom of the Networks list
Enter the Network name
Enter the Network address and Netmask
The Gateway of the network that must be within the range defined by the network address and the network mask
For the Tag, enter the tag (such as VLAN or VXLAN tag) to use for this network. You can Check the tag availability: Green means available, Yellow means used in another network, Red means excluded in the rack
Choose the Network Service Type, which assigns the network to network interfaces on the hypervisors. See About network service types
For SDN, select the device
Enter DNS details
Select Restricted to create a network where users require privileges to Attach NICs in restricted networks and/or Detach NICs from restricted networks
To define a network where VM firewalls will not apply, select Excluded from firewall
For Static routes, select the Define checkbox and specify them as described below
For NSX-T, enter the Provider ID, which is the network path
Create a public network

Create static routes

You can create static routes for external and public networks in Abiquo.

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 a datacenter
Go to Network → External or Public
Click the + add button at the bottom of the list
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 or external 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 → 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

Set default networks for tenants

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 from this network.

To make an external network the default network for an enterprise in a datacenter, see Configure an enterprise in a cloud location .