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Networking in OpenStack

Networking is a central component of OpenStack that enables connectivity between virtual machines (VMs), external networks, and other services. It provides a flexible and scalable infrastructure for creating and managing network topologies.

Key Networking Concepts

  • Virtual Router (VR) — connects private networks to the public internet. Provides NAT (Network Address Translation) and routing. Routers are deployed as highly available (Master/Slave).
  • Private Networks — isolated networks where your VMs operate. Not directly accessible from the internet.
  • Subnets — IP address ranges assigned to a network. Can be IPv4 or IPv6.
  • Floating IPs — public IP addresses dynamically assigned to VMs to make them reachable from the internet.
  • Security Groups — stateful firewall rules that control inbound (Ingress) and outbound (Egress) traffic for VMs.
  • Port Forwarding — redirects incoming traffic from a Floating IP port to a specific port on a VM.
  • Load Balancer — distributes traffic across multiple VMs to enhance availability and performance (Octavia).
  • IPSEC VPN — secure site-to-site connections between your OpenStack network and external networks.
  • RBAC Networking — shares networks between projects using Role-Based Access Control.
  • IPv6 — support for IPv6 addressing and dual-stack (IPv4/IPv6) configurations.

In This Section

  • Setup Network — create a virtual router, private network, and subnet, and connect them.
  • Security Groups — create security groups, add firewall rules, and assign them to VMs.
  • Load Balancer — configure HTTP and HTTPS-terminated load balancers via CLI.
  • Port Forwarding — forward traffic from a Floating IP port to a VM via Horizon and CLI.
  • IPSEC VPN — configure site-to-site IPSEC VPN connections in Horizon.
  • RBAC Networks — share networks between projects using RBAC via CLI.
  • IPv6 — Horizon — create IPv6 or dual-stack networks in the Horizon dashboard.
  • IPv6 — CLI — create IPv6 or dual-stack networks using the OpenStack CLI.