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.

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.