For NSX-T Data Center deployments, you create an external network to contain the floating IP addresses of future tenant logical (tier-1) routers.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the VMware Integrated OpenStack dashboard as a cloud administrator.
  2. Select the admin project from the drop-down menu in the title bar.
  3. Select Admin > Network > Networks.
  4. Click Create Network and configure the provider network.
    Option Description
    Name

    Enter a name for the network.

    Project

    Select the desired project from the drop-down menu.

    Provider Network Type

    Select External for connecting tenant logical routers to tier-0 router.

    Physical Network

    If you selected External as the provider network type, enter the ID of the tier-0 logical router to which you can connect future tenant logical routers.

    • If the Neutron Policy Plugin is used, the router ID is the policy ID.
    • If the Neutron Management Plugin is used, the router ID is the management UUID.
    If you use the vRF Lite feature in NSX-T, enter the ID of the vRF instance.
    The process to find the router ID depends on the ID type.
    • To obtain the policy ID from the NSX-T policy UI, select Tier-0 Gateways. Click the three dots to the left of the gateway entry, and select Copy Path to Clipboard. The full path with the ID is copied to the clipboard.
    • For a management UUID, check the UUID of the tier-0 router in either the NSX-T 3.0 Manager UI or the NSX-T 2.5 Advanced Networking & Security UI.
    You can also create the network from the command line. 
    openstack network create <ext_network_name> --external --provider-physical-network <tier_0_router>

    Where ext_network_name is the OpenStack external network name and tier_0_router_name is the NSX-T tier-0 router name or ID.

  5. Select Enable Admin State, External Network, and Create Subnet.
  6. If you want multiple projects to use the external network, select Shared.
  7. Click Next and configure the subnet.
    Option Description
    Subnet Name

    Enter a name for the subnet.
    Network Address

    Enter the IP address range for the subnet in CIDR format (for example, 192.0.2.0/24).

    IP Version

    Select IPv4 or IPv6.

    Gateway IP

    Enter the gateway IP address. If you do not enter a value, the first IP address in the subnet is used. If you do not want a gateway on the subnet, select Disable Gateway.

    You can also configure the subnet from the command line. 
    openstack subnet create --subnet-range 192.0.2.0/24 --allocation-pool start=192.0.2.10,end=192.0.2.15 --no-dhcp --network <ext_network_name> <ext_subnet_name>

    Where ext_network_name is the OpenStack external network name and ext_subnet_name is the subnet name.

  8. Click Next and deselect Enable DHCP.
  9. (Optional) Configure additional settings for the subnet.
    1. Under Allocation Pools, enter IP address pools from which to allocate the floating IP addresses of tenant logical routers. Enter pools as two IP addresses separated by a comma (for example, 192.0.2.10,192.0.2.15). If you do not specify any IP address pools, the entire subnet is available for allocation.
    2. Under DNS Name Servers, enter the IP address of one or more DNS servers for using on the subnet.
    3. Under Host Routes, enter routes for advertising to the hosts on the subnet. Enter routes as the destination IP address in CIDR format and the next hop separated by a comma (for example, 192.0.2.0/24,192.51.100.1).
  10. Click Create.