Modeling new network resources
You can model new network resources, such as routers and networks. When you provision the blueprint, the target cloud creates the network resources.
- OpenStack and OpenStack-based clouds
- In the blueprint designer, you can create networks, subnets, and routers. When you provision an environment from the blueprint, the engine creates corresponding network resources on the OpenStack cloud. Because the engine is a Heat-compliant engine, you can also edit the source code of blueprints to add other OpenStack Neutron and Nova types. The engine creates these other types at provisioning time, too. However, these types are not included in the blueprint designer.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- In the blueprint designer, you can create networks, routers, and subnets. When you
provision an environment from the blueprint, the engine creates equivalent network
resources on AWS. For example, if you create a network in the blueprint and then create
a configuration file for AWS, the configuration file maps the
OS::Neutron::Net
OpenStack resource type to theIBM::EC2::VPC
AWS resource type. Therefore, when you provision an environment from that blueprint and configuration file, the engine creates a virtual private cloud (VPC) on AWS. - SoftLayer®
- Modeling new SoftLayer network resources in blueprints is not supported. You must create network resources separately and attach resources to those network resources; see Attaching resources to existing networks.
- VMware
- Restriction: VMware NSX is required for creating network resources on VMware clouds. Without NSX, you can attach resources to existing networks, but you cannot create network resources; see Attaching resources to existing networks.VMware NSX provides a networking layer on top of VMware vCenter. When you are using VMware NSX with VMware vCenter, you can model new networks and routers in the blueprint designer. These resource types are not available in the palette; you must add the types to the blueprint source code manually.When you provision environments from the blueprint, the engine creates equivalent network resources on NSX. For example, if you add a network to a blueprint and then create a configuration file for VMware, the configuration file maps the
OS::Neutron::Net
OpenStack resource type to theIBM::VCenter::Network
VMware resource type. Therefore, when you provision an environment from that blueprint and configuration file, the engine attempts to create a network on NSX.Note: Network creation on NSX is a preview feature and is not supported.Restriction: Not all VMware resource types are implemented. For example, if you include the typesIBM::VCenter::Port
, the engine ignores those resources. The engine creates only new networks and new routers.Similarly, the blueprint design server does not support creating subnets or datastores on NSX; if you specify a subnet or datastore in the blueprint, those resources are ignored. New instances are always added to the resource pool, not to other locations such as datastores or clusters.
- Azure
- Modeling new Azure network resources in blueprints is not supported. You must create network resources separately and attach resources to those network resources; see Attaching resources to existing networks.
For example, the following steps describe how to add new images to
a new internal network and then connect that internal network to an existing external
network via a new router.
- In a blueprint, add one or more images.
- From the Networks drawer of the palette, add a New Internal Network to the blueprint, and connect the images to the network.
- Add a subnet to the internal network:
- In the source code for the blueprint, add a subnet resource. Use the
OS::Neutron::Subnet
resource type. - At minimum, specify the following properties for the subnet resource:
- network_id
- Specify the ID of the network that contains the subnet or a reference to that network.
- cidr
- Specify the range of IP addresses in Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) format.
MyNewInternalNetwork
. Then, it shows a new subnet that is on that network. This subnet is connected to the network and represents the IP address range of 192.168.99.0 through 192.168.99.255.MyNewInternalNetwork: type: OS::Neutron::Net properties: name: MyNewInternalNetwork MyNewSubnet: type: OS::Neutron::Subnet properties: name: 'MyNewSubnet' network_id: { get_resource: MyNewInternalNetwork } cidr: '192.168.99.0/24'
- In the source code for the blueprint, add a subnet resource. Use the
- Add the existing external network to the blueprint.
- Add a router to the blueprint.
- Connect the internal network and external network to the router.
Creating network resources in VMware
As another example, the following steps describe how to create network resources in VMware NSX. Because the NSX types are not fully implemented, you must provide NSX properties in the blueprint code so they are passed to the VMware types in the configuration file.- In a blueprint, add one or more images.
- From the Networks drawer of the palette, add a New Internal Network to the blueprint and connect the images to the network.
- In the blueprint source code, specify VMware properties for the new network. Because no
VMware network type is yet implemented, you must use the OpenStack type
OS::Neutron::Net
and add properties for VMware, as in the following example:
In the sectionMyNewInternalNetwork: type: OS::Neutron::Net properties: name: MyNewInternalNetwork metadata: vmware_properties: transport_zone_id: vdnscope-1 edge_name: { get_param: edge_name } resource_pool: { get_param: vmware_resource_pool } appliance_size: compact
vmware_properties
, specify the following properties:- transport_zone_id
- The ID of the transport zone.
- edge_name
- The name of the edge appliance.
- resource_pool
- The resource pool to put the network in.
- appliance_size
- The size of the appliance.
- Add a subnet of the type
OS::Neutron::Subnet
to the network, as in this example:
In the sectionMySubnet: type: OS::Neutron::Subnet properties: network_id: { get_resource: MyNewInternalNetwork } cidr: 172.17.17.1/24 allocation_pools: - start: 172.17.17.210 end: 172.17.17.230 - start: 172.17.17.231 end: 172.17.17.250 gateway_ip: 172.17.17.1 metadata: vmware_properties: lease_time: "14400" domain_name: mynsx.example.org
vmware_properties
, specify the following properties:- lease_time
- Specify the lease time or the value
infinite
. - domain_name
- Specify the domain name of the DHCP pool.
- Add a router of the type
OS::Neutron::Router
, as in the following example:
In the sectionMyRouter: type: OS::Neutron::Router # Add dependency on network to locate edge_id depends_on: MyNewInternalNetwork properties: name: MyRouter external_gateway_info: network: productionExample metadata: vmware_properties: external_cidr: 10.104.175.123/26 mtu: 2000
vmware_properties
, specify the following properties:- external_cidr
- Specify the IP address range for external traffic, in CIDR format.
- mtu
- Specify the MTU value for the uplink interface.
- Add a router interface of the type
OS::Neutron::RouterInterface
to connect the router to the subnet, as in the following example:router_interface-1: type: OS::Neutron::RouterInterface properties: router_id: { get_resource: MyRouter } subnet_id: { get_resource: MySubnet }
- Add a port of the type
OS::Neutron::Port
and connect it to the router and subnet, as in the following example:router_interface: type: OS::Neutron::RouterInterface properties: router_id: { get_resource: MyRouter } subnet_id: { get_resource: MySubnet }
- Specify the output attributes of the blueprint in the outputs section. Attributes are
commonly used to provide relevant derived values. In this case, the attributes are the ID
of the edge services gateway on the logical switch and the ID of the port group that is
associated with that logical
switch.
outputs: edge_id: description: The ID of the edge services gateway attached to the logical switch value: { get_attr: [MyNewInternalNetwork, edge_id] } portgroup_id: description: The ID of the portgroup associated with the logical switch value: { get_attr: [MyNewInternalNetwork, portgroup_id] }