Skip to content

Networks

A Network represents a private, isolated IP network within your infrastructure where your services and virtual machines reside. It defines the communication boundary for your workloads and provides the necessary IP address space for them to operate.

What is a Network?

Think of a network as a virtual "room" where you place your resources. Each network is defined by its CIDR (e.g., 10.0.0.0/24), which determines the range of available IP addresses. By default, resources in different networks cannot talk to each other unless they are connected via a Router.

Networks are scoped to a specific infrastructure. This means you can create multiple isolated environments (like development, staging, or production) that are completely separated at the network layer.

Key Concepts

  • Isolation: Each network is its own broadcast domain. This allows you to group related services together and isolate them from unrelated ones for security and organization.
  • IP Management (DHCP): Networks typically provide automatic IP address assignment via DHCP. This ensures that when you boot a Virtual Machine or a Kubernetes node, it automatically receives a valid IP address and the necessary configuration to reach other services.
  • Imported Networks: If you already have existing networks in your cloud infrastructure, you can import them into the platform. This allows you to use your pre-configured network topology while still benefiting from managed services.

Creating a Network

When you create a network you choose:

  • IP Protocol — IPv4 or IPv6. A network is single-stack: it is either IPv4 or IPv6, not both.
  • CIDR — the address range (e.g. 10.0.0.0/24, or fd00::/64 for IPv6). The CIDR must match the chosen IP protocol.

DHCP

DHCP hands out IP addresses automatically to the resources on the network. It is off by default — enable it if you want automatic IP assignment. When enabled you can configure:

Field What it is
Gateway IP The default gateway for the network
DNS servers A comma-separated list of DNS server IPs
Allocation Pools The start/end IP ranges DHCP may hand out
Static Routes Extra routes (destination CIDR + next hop) pushed to clients

When you enable DHCP the form pre-fills a sensible gateway and allocation pool based on your CIDR; you can adjust them.

Tracking used IPs

A network's detail page shows which IP addresses are currently in use, what kind of resource holds each one (instance, router, gateway, DHCP, load balancer, floating IP, port, …), and whether it is managed by the platform.

Editing and deleting

After creation you can change the name, description and DHCP settings. The CIDR and IP Protocol cannot be changed.

  • Deleting a network you created is permanent and may cut connectivity for any attached VMs.
  • Deleting an imported network only detaches it from the platform — the network in your cloud is kept, so you can re-import it later.

Deletion asks you to type the network's name or ID to confirm.

Importing an existing network (OpenStack)

Importing an existing network is available for OpenStack infrastructures today. Instead of creating a network, you reference one that already exists in your cloud by its network and subnet IDs, so you keep your pre-configured topology while still using managed services.

Interactions

Networks are the foundation for most other resources:

  • Virtual Machines: Every VM must be attached to at least one network to have connectivity.
  • Routers: Used to bridge multiple networks together or to provide a path to the internet.
  • Firewalls: Applied to the network interfaces of your services to control who can enter or leave the network.