2.3. Networking Requirements

The Undercloud host requires at least two networks:
  • Provisioning Network - This is a private network the director uses to provision and manage the Overcloud nodes. The Provisioning network provides DHCP and PXE boot functions to help discover bare metal systems for use in the Overcloud. This network must use a native VLAN on a trunked interface so that the director serves PXE boot and DHCP requests. This is also the network you use to control power management through Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) on all Overcloud nodes.
  • External Network - A separate network for remote connectivity to all nodes. This interface connecting to this network requires a routable IP address, either defined statically or dynamically through an external DHCP service.
This represents the minimum number of networks required. However, the director can isolate other Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform network traffic into other networks. Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform supports both physical interfaces and tagged VLANs for network isolation. For more information on network isolation, see Section 4.2, “Planning Networks”.
Note the following:
  • All machines require at least two NICs. In a typical minimal configuration, use either:
    • One NIC for the Provisioning network and the other NIC for the External network.
    • One NIC for the Provisioning network on the native VLAN and the other NIC for tagged VLANs that use subnets for the different Overcloud network types.
  • Additional physical NICs can be used for isolating individual networks, creating bonded interfaces, or for delegating tagged VLAN traffic.
  • If using VLANs to isolate your network traffic types, use a switch that supports 802.1Q standards to provide tagged VLANs.
  • During the Overcloud creation, we refer to NICs using a single name across all Overcloud machines. Ideally, you should use the same NIC on each system for each respective network to avoid confusion. For example, use the primary NIC for the Provisioning network and the secondary NIC for the OpenStack services.
  • Make sure the Provisioning network NIC is not the same NIC used for remote connectivity on the director machine. The director installation creates a bridge using the Provisioning NIC, which drops any remote connections. Use the External NIC for remote connections to the director system.
  • The Provisioning network requires an IP range that fits your environment size. Use the following guidelines to determine the total number of IP addresses to include in this range:
    • Include at least one IP address per node connected to the Provisioning network.
    • If planning a high availability configuration, include an extra IP address for the virtual IP of the cluster.
    • Include additional IP addresses in the range for scaling the environment.

    Note

    Duplicate IP addresses should be avoided on the Provisioning network. For more information, see Section 12.4, “Avoid IP address conflicts on the Provisioning network”.

    Note

    For more information on planning your IP address usage, for example, for storage, provider, and tenant networks, see the Networking Guide.
  • Set all Overcloud systems to PXE boot off the Provisioning NIC and disable PXE boot on the External NIC and any other NICs on the system. Also ensure PXE boot for Provisioning NIC is at the top of the boot order, ahead of hard disks and CD/DVD drives.
  • All Overcloud bare metal systems require an Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) connected to the Provisioning network. The director controls the power management of each node.
  • Make a note of the following details for each Overcloud system: the MAC address of the Provisioning NIC, the IP address of the IPMI NIC, IPMI username, and IPMI password. This information is useful to have when setting up the Overcloud nodes.
  • To mitigate the risk of network loops in Open vSwitch, only a single interface or a single bond may be a member of a given bridge. If you require multiple bonds or interfaces, you can configure multiple bridges.

Important

Your OpenStack Platform implementation is only as secure as its environment. Follow good security principles in your networking environment to ensure that network access is properly minimized. For example:
  • Use network segmentation to mitigate network movement and isolate sensitive data; a flat network is much less secure.
  • Restrict services access and ports to a minimum.
  • Ensure proper firewall rules and password usage.
  • Ensure that SELinux is enabled.
For details on securing your system, see: