A logical network is a named set of global network connectivity properties in your data center. When a logical network is added to a host, it may be further configured with host-specific network parameters. Logical networks optimize network flow by grouping network traffic by usage, type, and requirements.

Logical networks allow both connectivity and segregation. You can create a logical network for storage communication to optimize network traffic between hosts and storage domains, a logical network specifically for all virtual machine traffic, or multiple logical networks to carry the traffic of groups of virtual machines.

The default logical network in all data centers is the management network called rhevm. The rhevm network carries all traffic, until another logical network is created. It is meant especially for management communication between the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager and hosts.

A logical network is a data center level resource; creating one in a data center makes it available to the clusters in a data center. A logical network that has been designated a Required must be configured in all of a cluster's hosts before it is operational. Optional networks can be used by any host they have been added to.