How to create an isolated VDC network

Overview

An organisation virtual data centre network enables its virtual machines (VMs) to communicate with each other or to provide access to external networks. A single VDC can have multiple networks.

There are two network flavours, isolated and routed:

  • An isolated (internally connected) network is one that only VMs within the VDC can connect to. This guide describes how to create an isolated VDC network.

  • A routed network (externally connected) provides access to machines and networks outside the VDC via the edge gateway. You can have up to nine usable routed networks per VDC. Creation of routed networks is described in How to create a routed VDC network.

The steps for creating an isolated VDC network depend on the version of vCloud Director available in your environment:

Creating an isolated VDC network (vCloud Director 8.20)

  1. In vCloud Director, click the Administration tab.

    Administration tab in vCloud Director

    For more detailed instructions, see the Getting Started Guide for UKCloud for VMware

  2. Double-click the virtual data centre (VDC) that you want to work with, or right-click the VDC and select Open.

  3. Select the Org VDC Networks tab.

    Org VDC Networks tab in vCloud Director

  4. Click the green + icon (or right-click an empty row and select Add Network).

  5. Select the option to Create an isolated network.

    Isolated network option

  6. Click Next.

  7. In the Configure Network page, create a network Gateway address and Network mask, and add a DNS if possible.

    Network settings for routed VDC network

  8. The Static IP pool is similar to DHCP in the sense that it's a range of IP addresses to be consumed by the VMs connecting to the network. When a VM is configured it will have a static manual or a static IP pool address assigned to it.

    • For static manual, enter the address manually. This must be a valid address for the pool. The VM will keep this address for as long as it exists.

    • For static IP pool, enter a range of addresses. A free address from the IP pool will be allocated to the machine automatically.

    As an example, if you give the gateway address as 192.168.1.1, you may then want to give a static IP pool of 192.168.1.10 to 192.168.1.100. This will give you a pool of 91 IP addresses to assign to machines within your network. You can always increase this later if needed.

    IP pool for routed network

  9. Click Next.

  10. Give the network a Name and Description.

  11. If you want to make the network shareable with other VDCs, select the Share this network check box.

  12. Click Next to review your settings, and then click Finish.You'll then need to create a network gateway address and network mask.

Creating an isolated VDC network (vCloud Director 9.1)

  1. In the vCloud Director Virtual Datacenters dashboard, select the VDC in which you want to create the network.

  2. In the left navigation panel, select Networks.

    Network tab in vCloud Director

  3. Click the Add button.

    Add network button

  4. In the Add Org VDC Network dialog box, from the Type radio buttons, select Isolated network within this Virtual Data Center.

    Add Org VDC Network dialog box with Isolated network selected

  5. Confirm that you're creating the network in the correct Org VDC.

  6. Enter a Name and Description for the network.

  7. If you want to make the network shareable with other VDCs, select the Share this network with other VDCs in this organization check box.

  8. Create a network Gateway address and Network mask, and add a DNS if possible.

  9. The Static IP Pool is similar to DHCP in the sense that it's a range of IP addresses to be consumed by the VMs connecting to the network. When a VM is configured it will have a static manual or a static IP pool address assigned to it.

    • For static manual, enter the address manually. This must be a valid address for the pool. The VM will keep this address for as long as it exists.

    • For static IP pool, enter a range of addresses. A free address from the IP pool will be allocated to the machine automatically.

    As an example, if you give the gateway address as 192.168.1.1, you may then want to create a Static IP Pool of 192.168.1.10-192.168.1.100. This will give you a pool of 91 IP addresses to assign to machines within your network. You can always increase this later if needed.

    Static IP Pool

    Click Add to create the static pool.

  10. When you're done, click Save.

Next steps

Now you've created your network to connect your VDC with the outside world, may want to configure your edge gateway to control what traffic is allowed into and out of your VDC. You may also wan to start building some VMs. For a quick guide on how to do this, see How to build a virtual machine with UKCloud for VMware.

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