NAT in vCloud Director

In Abiquo 4.7.1, the vCloud Director integration introduces support for NAT networks and NAT rules for VMs. 

This functionality is configured for the NSX Edge gateways of the orgVDCs, at the same level as the Abiquo classic firewalls.

To use NAT in vCloud Director, the network administrator must use a CIDR that is compatible with an Edge interface network connected to external networks.

Create a NAT network in vCloud

To create a NAT network that defines a range of IP addresses to use for network address translation, do these steps.

1. Go to Infrastructure → Public → Network → NAT

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2. Click the + add button and enter the network details

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3. The platform will create the NAT rule and add a firewall rule in the Edge but you will need to refresh or synchronize the region's classic firewall to display the new rule. The platform will also automatically delete the firewall rule when the user deletes the NAT network.

Note that the platform does not discover existing NAT networks or IPs so the administrator should be familiar with the configuration of the Edge and the network address to use.

Add IPs to the NAT network

To add IPs to the NAT network, do these steps.

1. Select the NAT network and click the + add button on the right side of the screen

2. Enter the number of IP addresses and the starting address, then click Accept

3. Optionally go to Available IPs and make some IPs unavailable until you require them

Obtain NAT IPs for virtual datacenters in vCloud Director

To obtain a NAT IP for use in your VMs, do these steps.

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → select virtual datacenter → Network → NAT

2. Click + add and select the NAT network

3. Click Accept

The platform will add the NAT IP to the virtual datacenter.

Create a virtual datacenter with a default NAT IP in vCloud Director

When you create a virtual datacenter, you can select a NAT network and a default NAT IP.

The platform does not create a default SNAT rule for the virtual datacenter in vCloud Director. But the user can create an SNAT rule for each VM.

Create NAT rules

To create NAT rules,

1. Edit your VM and go to Network → SNAT or DNAT.

2. Complete the dialogs with the details of the address translation.

Screenshot: Create a DNAT rule

Screenshot: create an SNAT rule