Networks page - vCenter

The Networks page lets you define networks within an environment (that is, within a network container in BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management). You accomplish this by identifying networks that already exist on a port group. Quick Start can use the information about existing networks to define networks where virtual machines can be provisioned.

The Networks page also shows networks that were identified while defining a vCenter connector. These "pod-level networks" have only one editable option, Network Alias. You can override the the network alias in the context of this environment.

To define a network

1. To add a new network, click Add New and provide the following information:

   Option	Description
   [VLAN] Port Group	A port group available on this VLAN. Using a VLAN, you can segment a single physical LAN segment so groups of ports are isolated from one another as if they were on physically different segments. Notes A VLAN can only be used in a single connector or environment network.  If you have multiple port groups on the same VLAN, you will only be able to use one of those port groups. Quick Start can only use port groups with a specified VLAN.  Port groups that leverage untagged or native VLANs must be updated to specify the VLAN ID.
   Network Alias	An identifying name for a network created in BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management. The alias is also used for generating a tag. For pod-level networks, identified while connecting to a vCenter, you can modify the Network Alias.
   Gateway	Address of the IP router that is used to forward traffic to destinations outside of the local network. For example, 10.0.0.1.
   Network	IP address for this network. Available addresses within the network address can be further specified using the subnet value. For example, 10.0.0.0.
   Subnet	A range of IP addresses that are available to the network address. For example, 255.255.255.0.
   Excluded IPs	IP addresses to exclude from the network. Do not exclude the IP address for the gateway, which will cause creation of the network container to fail.
   Management	A flag indicating whether the network is used for management purposes. If you do not specify a network at the pod level and you only specify one network at the environment level, you must indicate that the network be used for both management and customer purposes.
   Customer	A flag indicating the network is used for customer purposes. If you do not specify a network at the pod level and you only specify one network at the environment level, you must indicate that the network be used for both management and customer purposes.

2. To exclude network addresses from a network, perform the following steps:
   1. To exclude one or more IP addresses from a network, click Choose under Excluded IPs. A utility for specifying IP addresses opens, as shown below.
      
   2. To specify one IP address for exclusion, enter a value for Start IP address. To specify a range of IP Addresses, enter a value for Start IP address and End IP address.
   3. Click Add  to move the specified addresses to the list of excluded addresses.
      
      Hovering over an IP address in the excluded list displays an icon . Click it to remove a specified address.
      

End-to-end Quick Start process

For a complete description of the Quick Start process for VMware vCenter, see Provisioning-VMs-on-VMware-vCenter-using-Quick-Start.