Retrieve a List of External Networks and Network Pools

You can retrieve a list of external networks and network pools that have been created on a vCenter server registered to a cloud.

A reference to an external network is required when you create an Edge Gateway. A reference to a network pool is usually required when you create an organization VDC. These resources do not exist in a new VMware Cloud Director installation. A system administrator must create them, as described in Create an External Network and Create a Network Pool.

Note:

Every Provider VDC requires a VxlanPoolType network pool. You can choose to have the system create this pool automatically with a standard configuration, or you can create one yourself that has a custom configuration and have the system attach it to the new Provide VDC. See Create a Network Pool.

Prerequisites

This operation is restricted to system administrators.

Procedure

1. Retrieve the XML representation of your cloud.
   Use a request like this one:

   GET https://vcloud.example.com/api/admin/extension

2. Examine the response, a VMWExtension element, to locate the links to lists of external networks and network pools.
   These links have the following form:

   <vcloud:Link
      rel="down"
      type="application/vnd.vmware.admin.vmwExternalNetworkReferences+xml"
      href="https://vcloud.example.com/api/admin/extension/externalNetworkReferences" />
   <vcloud:Link
      rel="down"
      type="application/vnd.vmware.admin.vmwNetworkPoolReferences+xml"
      href="https://vcloud.example.com/api/admin/extension/networkPoolReferences" />

3. Make a GET request to the link that represents the object type of interest.
   See Retrieve a List of External Networks.

Example: Retrieve a List of External Networks

Request:

GET https://vcloud.example.com/api/admin/extension/externalNetworkReferences

Each reference to an external network includes its type, name, and href attributes, as shown in this example.

Response:

<vmext:VMWExternalNetworkReferences ... >
   ...
   <vmext:ExternalNetworkReference
      type="application/vnd.vmware.admin.extension.network+xml"
      name="VC0"
      href="https://vcloud.example.com/api/admin/extension/externalnet/85" />
   <vmext:ExternalNetworkReference
      type="application/vnd.vmware.admin.extension.network+xml"
      name="VC1"
      href="https://vcloud.example.com/api/admin/extension/externalnet/302" />
   ...
</vmext:VMWExternalNetworkReferences>

The corresponding element for network pools, VMWNetworkPoolReferences, is similar. In most cases, you can supply just the href attribute value when you specify an external network or network pool in an organization network creation request. You can retrieve additional information about the external network or network pool by making a GET request to its href attribute value.