Networks

To manage network configuration, click the Infrastructure button at the top of the main screen. Click on a datacenter in the list to see the datacenter detail. In the datacenter pane on the right, click the Network tab.

Abiquo offers IP addresses on these networks in virtual datacenters:

public networks have Internet addressable public IP addresses. Floating IPs from public cloud regions are managed as public IPs in virtual datacenters.
external networks are assigned to an enterprise and used in one or more virtual datacenters. They have public or private IP addresses allocated by Abiquo.
unmanaged networks are assigned to an enterprise and used in one or more virtual datacenters. They have IP addresses allocated from outside Abiquo.
private networks have private IP addresses restricted to one virtual datacenter.

Abiquo Public, External and Unmanaged Networks

API Documentation

For the Abiquo API documentation of this feature, see Abiquo API Resources and the page for this resource PublicNetworkResource.

Public Networks

Public networks allow the users of virtual datacenters to use Internet addressable public IP addresses in their virtual infrastructure. These networks are not assigned to any specific enterprise in Abiquo and they cannot be the default network for a virtual datacenter.

External Networks

External networks are assigned to a single enterprise and they may have public or private IP addresses. IP addresses on these networks can be used in more than one virtual datacenter. External networks can be assigned to an enterprise's datacenters or virtual datacenters as a default network, thus streamlining the configuration of access to networks outside the virtual datacenter.

Unmanaged Networks

Unmanaged Networks are a special type of external network. Their IP addresses are allocated outside of Abiquo. In Abiquo you must enter the network and the gateway. The IP address for virtual machines on these networks can be assigned using the corporate DHCP server or by manually entering configuration with ifconfig in a shell, for example.

The cloud administrator is responsible for the proper administration of IP address ranges and VLAN tags.

Public Cloud Networks

Private Networks

When you create a virtual datacenter in a public cloud region, Abiquo automatically creates a private network, which is a VPC subnet. This private network can have the default Abiquo private configuration (modified to allow for reserved addresses) or a custom private network configuration. The network has an internet gateway. If the default network configuration for your enterprise is not a private network (e.g. an external network), then this configuration will be ignored and the default private network will be created.

You can create additional Abiquo private networks in a public cloud region and in Amazon, these are additional VPC subnets. If you deploy in an additional VPC subnet, then your virtual machine will be deployed in the availability zone that the subnet belongs to.

Floating IPs

In addition, you can add floating IPs to your virtual machines. In Amazon, these are elastic IPs. Abiquo manages them as public IPs, because they are purchased and assigned to virtual datacenters. Remember that Amazon will charge for Elastic IPs when they are not in use, so you should delete these IPs from virtual machines that are not deployed.

Hybrid Cloud Networking

When you create a hybrid cloud with Abiquo you can connect the virtual machines in your Abiquo datacenters and public cloud regions in different ways.

Microsoft Azure hybrid cloud networking

New feature

Abiquo support for virtual networks and virtual network subnets was introduced in Abiquo 3.6.1.

Abiquo virtual datacenters use Azure virtual networks and virtual network subnets. This makes it easy to create hybrid cloud environments, for example, the test environment described in the Microsoft Azure documentation. See https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/virtual-networks-setup-hybrid-cloud-environment-testing/

To create this test environment in Abiquo, first configure your local subnet following the Azure instructions. Also create the virtual network to extend your local network in Azure. Then using Abiquo, you can easily specify and create the Abiquo virtual datacenter, which is a cloud service with a subnet of the Azure virtual network. Then you can configure the site-to-site VPN connection following the Azure instructions. And use Abiquo to deploy the virtual machine that will be the second domain controller.

AWS hybrid cloud networking

Outside of Abiquo, in AWS, you can establish an Internet gateway that will provide NAT services to the machines in the public datacenter. And you can establish a VPN connection between your private and public datacenters.

Machines within the Abiquo virtual datacenter in an AWS VPC have Internet access through the VPC Internet gateway.

Abiquo supports AWS Elastic IPs, which are floating public IP addresses. Therefore you can access virtual machines in a public cloud region through a floating public IP assigned to one of the machines in this datacenter. From there, you can access the other machines on the VPC subnet (Private Connect Network).