Multiple vNICs in public cloud

Abiquo 6.1 introduces the multiple vNICs feature in public cloud to manage multiple IP addresses per virtual network interface card (vNIC). This feature is for public cloud providers, except VCD, and it includes user interface changes.

For each provider, there will be a maximum number of vNICs for the provider, for each VM template, and/or for each hardware profile. In the initial version of this feature, Abiquo does not obtain or manage the maximum number of vNICs. Also in the initial version of this feature, Abiquo assigns firewalls per VM, not per vNIC.

vNIC sequences

This feature uses the concept of vNIC sequences to represent groups of IP addresses. The primary vNIC sequence is the first one in a VM. The primary IP address is the first IP address in a vNIC sequence. A VM must always have at least at least one vNIC with one private IP or subnet IP address. The Abiquo UI will display the link between IPs in a private - public pair.

In the cloud providers, the order of secondary vNICs is not important and Abiquo displays them in attachment order.

The UI for public VNICs displays links for VNIC pairs

Add default IP addresses

Firstly, the vNIC feature includes the default Abiquo networking so that if the user does not add a vNIC, when you deploy the VM, Abiquo will automatically add a default IP from the default VDC network.

Abiquo adds a default IP address to the VM

Add a public IP address

To connect to a VM, you will need a public IP address. If you deployed your VM already, to add a public IP address to the default configuration, you may need to shut down the VM (AWS, GCP), and or deallocate it (Azure).

When you add a public IP, you must select an existing vNIC sequence that already has a private IP.

The platform will add the public IP to the VM. If you didn’t add a firewall when you first deployed the VM, you could add one now to allow traffic to your VM.

After you power on your VM, you should be able to connect to it.

Add private IPs and new vNIC sequences

When you add additional private IPs, you can add them to existing primary or secondary vNIC sequences. And you may also create new vNIC sequences with private IPs.

Some providers may allow only 1 private and 1 public IP per vNIC sequence.

Change vNIC sequences

Using Abiquo you cannot make changes to the primary vNIC, especially the first private IP, which is in the position 0-0, representing vNIC 0, IP address 0. If you are able to make these changes in the provider (e.g. Azure), then Abiquo will onboard these changes.

In Abiquo you cannot change the order of vNIC sequences and you probably won’t be able to change them in the provider either. In any case, you can detach IP addresses and reattach them in the new order.

Depending on the cloud provider, you can add or remove secondary IP addresses. But you cannot remove a private IP to use a public IP address without a private IP address. You will need to remove the public IP address first.

Cloud provider vNIC documentation

Provider	Documentation links

Provider	Documentation links
AWS	https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using-instance-addressing.html https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using-eni.html
Azure	https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-network/network-overview https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-network/virtual-network-network-interface
GCP	https://cloud.google.com/vpc/docs/create-use-multiple-interfaces
OCI	https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/Network/Tasks/managingVNICs.htm#overview

vNICs in cloud providers

This section describes vNICs in each of the major public cloud providers.

AWS

AWS supports multiple vNICs and secondary IPs, depending on the size of the VM. When you deploy a VM in Abiquo, you can add a maximum of 2 vNICs with a secondary IP. You can add an IP address when the VM is on.

To reconfigure a VM and remove an IP address or vNIC in Abiquo, you should power off the VM. You cannot remove the primary vNIC. You can reconfigure to change a secondary private IP of the primary vNIC.

Each vNIC has at least one 1 private IP address and an optional public IP address. You can also add more private IP addresses.

Azure

Azure supports multiple vNICs and secondary IPs. And you can add an IP address when the VM is on.

To add or remove a vNIC, you should power off the VM and put it in the Deallocated state.

Each vNIC has at least one 1 private IP address and an optional public IP address. You can also add more private IP addresses.

In the Azure portal or API, you can change the private IP address of the primary vNIC but you need to follow some specific steps. Abiquo does not allow you to change the primary IP but when Abiquo synchronizes with Azure, it will onboard your changes.

Azure assigns a MAC address to the vNIC after you attach it to a VM and start the VM for the first time. So before you deploy the VM, the MAC address could be null.

If the user deploys a VM with two public IPs and no private IPs, Abiquo will create a dynamic private IP for the second public IP. If the user undeploys and redeploys a VM with dynamic private IPs, then Abiquo will use static private IPs.

GCP

Abiquo only allows vNICs with a private IP and an optional public IP. There is no primary and secondary IP model. You can add more than one subnet IP to a VM but each subnet IP must be in a separate global network (VPC network). After you deploy the VM, you cannot add more vNICs. And you must power off the VM to change the vNICs. You can add a public IP to a private IP on an existing vNIC and remove the public IP.

OCI

OCI allows you to create vNICs with a private IP, optional secondary private IPs, and an optional public IP. The maximum number of vNICs is defined by the hardware profile. You cannot remove the primary vNIC and you can make changes to the private IP address for secondary IPs but not for primary IPs.

For OCI, you can change the IPs when the VM is powered on only.

Network synchronization process

Previously, when you synchronized public IPs or private IPs in Abiquo, this could update the IPs in a VM. Now these processes only update if an IP address is available or not. For example, if you create a load balancer and use an IP address, Abiquo will detect this and mark the IP address as not available. When the platform syncs VMs to update them or the user requests a reconfigure, Abiquo will update the IPs in a VM. So after you make a change to a VM to remove an IP, you may need to wait for VM sync process to run.

vNIC API changes

This feature introduces changes to the relation (rel) value in public cloud. Previously, as in private cloud, to add a NIC, you included a link with the rel value set to the sequence number of the NIC, such as “nic0”. Now you must specify the NIC and the IP number in the vNIC sequence. For example, “nic1ip2”.

Other network features

There are no changes to the following Abiquo network features:

Automatically add a default IP from the default VDC network
Automatically generate an IP address in private network
Purchase public IP addresses