Create a Network Instance

Updated

Introduction

A network instance (NI) enables network connectivity for edge applications, allowing them to connect with external networks and other apps on the same node. This article describes creating the NI by selecting a type (Switch or Local), configuring IP settings, and setting routing options.  

This is a series of articles. You will likely follow them in this order.

  1. Network Instance Overview 
  2. Create a Network Instance - You are here!
  3. Manage a Network Instance
  4. Use the ZEDEDA CLI to Manage a Network Instance

Prerequisites

Add the network instance

You can deploy many NIs onto a single edge node, and each of your edge apps may be connected to many NIs.

  1. Hover on Library in the side nav on the left of the page.
  2. Click Network Instances.
  3. Click the Add icon at the top right of your page.
  4. Continue on to the configuration topics as needed, such as configure the network instance identity.
  5. Click Add when finished.

Configure the network instance identity

  1. Enter the NI Name.
    This is unique across the enterprise and cannot be changed.
  2. Enter the NI Title.
    This value is not used by the ZEDEDA Cloud system. It’s offered to give you more flexibility in organizing your enterprise. It can be changed after you create the object. 
  3. Enter a Description.
    You or other admins can use this to understand the purpose of the NI or any important details about it.
  4. Enter keys and values for your Tags.
    You can add tags to your NI, which you can use to attach it to your edge apps during project creation. For example, you could tag them as “production” or “test” or “us-west”. If you do so, your NI will be automatically applied to all edge app instances on the nodes that belong to the chosen project. The tag assignment method ensures that when an edge node is added to the project, the edge app specified in the project's policy is deployed using the NI associated with that tag.  
  5. Continue on to configure the network instance details. 

Configure the network instance details

There are two types of NIs: switch instances and local instances. The adapter labels and maximum transmission unit (MTU) can be used with either type.  

  1. After you configure the network instance identity, configure the details by selecting your Edge Node from the dropdown menu.
  2. Enter the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU). 
    • Minimum value: 
      • 1280 bytes (the minimum link MTU needed to carry an IPv6 packet).
      • Default values (if you don’t specify a value): 
        • For air-gapped NIs: 1500 bytes
        • For NIs with external connectivity: the lowest MTU among the associated network entity's ports
  1. Select the NI Kind as Switch or Local. 
    • If you used adapter labels to group ports together when you onboarded your edge node, you can select your adapter labels from the Port drop-down menu or you can select an individual port. Predefined labels in the Port drop-down menu include the following: 
      • None for an air gapped NI. 
      • Uplink groups together all management-type ports. 
      • Freeuplink groups together all zero-cost management ports.
      • All groups together every network port. 
    • You can set the Default Edge Node Network Instance.
  •  
  1. Continue on to configure the IP settings. 

Configure the IP settings

You only need to create an IP configuration if you create a local instance, not a switch instance. When you create a local NI, you can add static routes and allow connected routes to be propagated down to applications with DHCP. 

  1. After you configure the network instance details, configure the IP settings by selecting one of the following:  
    • Auto: You can let ZEDEDA Cloud automatically assign IP addresses to devices within the NI, typically using DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). While auto configuration manages IP assignments dynamically, so you can leave the IP Address field blank, you can assign a user-friendly Host Name to help with identifying or connecting to the NI. 
    • Manual: You can specify the IP addresses for each device if you have applications that require fixed IP addresses for security, compliance, or other reasons.
  2. The following options are available only for Manual:  
    • Subnet: The subnet that the network instance will operate within.
    • IP Address Range: The range of IP addresses that can be assigned to devices within the configured subnet.
    • Gateway: The IP address of the device that serves as the entry and exit point for traffic between the local network instance and external networks.
    • Name Server: The IP address of the DNS (Domain Name System) server, allowing devices to resolve hostnames for resources on the network instance.
    • NTP Server: The IP address of the Network Time Protocol server, synchronizing the time on devices within the network instance.
    • Domain: A domain name for the network instance.
    • Host Name: Assign a user-friendly name to help with identifying or connecting to the NI.
    • IP Address: Assign an IP address to associate with the hostname.
  3. Continue on to configure the static IP route configuration.

Configure the static route configuration

We recommend using static and connected routes when your application is using more than one network interface for external connectivity. Without static and connected routes, all traffic destined to external endpoints will be routed by a default route, configured by the app’s DHCP client, with a non-deterministically selected output port, which may not be desirable. An alternative to this is using Local Network Instance with multiple ports, where the routing is taken care of by EVE-OS and routes do not need to be propagated to applications. 

  1. After you configure the IP settings, configure the static route configuration. 
  2. Enter the IP Prefix: The range of IP addresses that are part of this route, typically in CIDR notation (e.g., 192.168.1.0/24).
  3. Enter the IP Gateway Address: The IP address of the next-hop gateway for the specified route of the IP Prefix. Can be left empty to use the default gateway of the selected output port.
  4. Enter the Output Port: The network interface or port that should be used to send traffic for the defined route.
  5. Click the pull-down-arrow to configure Probing if available. 
    • Prefer Low Adapter Cost is enabled by default, so that your NI will use the ports in order of your cost preference. 
    • Prefer Stronger Cellular Signal is disabled by default. 
      • If this option is enabled and multiple cellular modems with working connectivity are selected for a route, EVE will prefer the modem with the best signal strength. This option has no effect on non-cellular network ports.
    • Enable Gateway Ping is enabled by default.
      • If enabled, you can set Max Allowed Adapter Cost For Gateway Ping (ports with higher cost will have gateway ping disabled), using an integer value in the range from 0-255. Default value is zero, meaning that ports with non-zero cost will have gateway ping disabled to reduce traffic generated by probing. 
    • Custom User Probe is disabled by default.
    • If enabled, you can set the following from the Probing Method drop-down:
      • ICMP Ping  - enter an IP or hostname to ping.
      • TCP Handshake - enter an IP or hostname and a TCP port number (integer 1-65535).
  6. Enable Connected Routes: Use existing routes that are directly reachable from the local network, enabling better management and optimization of traffic flow.

Next steps

This is a series of articles. You will likely follow them in this order.

  1. Network Instance Overview
  2. Create a Network Instance - You are here!
  3. Manage a Network Instance
  4. Use the ZEDEDA CLI to Manage a Network Instance

After you’ve completed the series, you might be interested in the following articles. 

  1. See Network Instances: a use case for an example of using adapter labels to implement multi-path routing with failover and port-forwarding restrictions.
  2. Deploy the edge application instance on the edge node to instantiate the app.
  3. Manage edge nodes and manage edge apps.
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