A system administrator or an organization administrator creates organization VDC networks and assigns them to your organization VDC or to an organization VDC group. An organization administrator can view information about networks, configure network services, and more.

You can use direct, routed, isolated, or data center group organization VDC networks backed by NSX Data Center for vSphere.

You can use routed, isolated, and imported organization VDC networks backed by NSX-T Data Center. You can also use routed, isolated, and imported data center group networks backed by NSX-T Data Center.
Table 1. Types of Organization VDC Networks
Data Center Type Network Description
Direct

An organization VDC network with a direct connection to one of the external networks that are provisioned by the system administrator and are backed by vSphere resources.

Direct networks are supported for organization VDCs that are backed by NSX Data Center for vSphere or by NSX-T Data Center.

Direct networks are accessible by multiple organization VDCs.

Virtual machines belonging to different organization VDCs can connect to and see traffic on this network.

A direct network provides direct layer 2 connectivity to virtual machines outside of the organization VDC. Virtual machines outside of this organization VDC can connect to virtual machines in the organization VDC directly.

Note: Only your system administrator can add a direct organization VDC network.

Can be IPv4 or IPv6.
Isolated (Internal)

Isolated networks are accessible only by the same organization VDC. Only virtual machines in this organization VDC can connect to and see traffic on the internal organization VDC network.

Isolated networks are supported for organization VDCs backed by NSX-T Data Center or by NSX Data Center for vSphere.

The isolated organization VDC network provides an organization VDC with an isolated, private network that multiple virtual machines and vApps can connect to. This network provides no connectivity to virtual machines outside the organization VDC. Machines outside of the organization VDC have no connectivity to machines in the organization VDC.
Routed

Routed networks are accessible only by the same organization VDC. Only virtual machines in this organization VDC can connect to this network.

This network also provides controlled access to an external network. As a system administrator or an organization administrator, you can configure network address translation (NAT), firewall, and VPN settings to make specific virtual machines accessible from the external network.

Routed networks are supported for organization VDCs backed by NSX-T Data Center or by NSX Data Center for vSphere.

Can be IPv4 or IPv6.
Imported NSX-T Data CenterLogical Switch Imported NSX-T Data Center networks are logical segments that are created in NSX-T Data Center and use an existing NSX-T Data Center logical switch. They are imported in a specific organization as an organization VDC network.
Note: Only a system administrator can import an NSX-T Data Center network.
Imported Distributed Port Group Starting with VMware Cloud Director 10.3, you can create an organization VDC network that uses an existing distributed port group from a vSphere distributed switch.
Note: Only a system administrator can import a distributed port group network.
Data Center Group Networks Backed by NSX Data Center for vSphere

This network is part of a data center group network spanning a data center group. A data center group can comprise between one and 16 organization VDCs in a single or a multisite VMware Cloud Director deployment.

Virtual machines connected to this network are connected to the underlying stretched network.
Data Center Group Networks Backed by NSX-T Data Center

Data center group networks are a type of organization VDC networks backed by NSX-T Data Center that are shared between one or more VDCs and to which vApps can connect.

Data center group networks can be isolated, imported, or routed, and require NSX-T Data Center.

All steps for managing your organization VDC networks are documented assuming that you have more than one VDC in your environment.