Networking¶
Sites can also hold network configuration information (such as DNS servers and DNS search zones) which can be Site specific. See the Config Values page.
Networked¶
Networked is an attribute applied to things with IP Addresses. It also has a hostname attribute. Structures are Networked, as well as some foundations such as the IPMIFoundation or AMTFoundation which has an Ip Address on its IPMI interface.
Ip Addresses¶
Ip Addresses are grouped together in named networks called AddressBlocks. Ip Addresses inside the AddressBlock are identified by the offset inside that network. The AddressBlock stores the subnet and prefix of the network. There is an optional offset for the gateway of the network. The Subnet and Prefix operate like standard CIDR ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classless_Inter-Domain_Routing ) mechanics. If the subnet and/or prefix of the AddressBlock is changed, all Ip Addresses connected to that AddressBlock will follow. No two AddressBlocks in the same site can overlap. An AddressBlock is also tied to a Site. An Address enforces that the Site the Networked belongs to is the same as the AddressBlock the Address Belongs to, thereby simplifying management, helping to assure that the address will work.
NOTE: When setting the subnet of an AddressBlock, Contractor will round to the top of the Subnet, so setting the subnet to 10.0.0.10 or 10.0.0.0 (assuming the prefix is small enough to include .0 and .10 in the same subnet) will result in the same value of 10.0.0.0.
You can calculate the subnet of an Ip Address by subtracting the subnet from the Ip Address For example 23.33.10.30 in the subnet 23.33.10.0/24 is 30.
In some cases (such as with containers), a Structure doesn’t have its own IpAddress, but relies on its host IpAddress. In these cases, Address can be configured to point to another Address. NOTE: the site is not checked through the pointer field, this way the host and the hosted can belong to different sites, make sure your site and network configuration works for this. Address also has a boolean value is_primary, which defines which of all the potential Addresses this Networked device is to be used as its primary DNS name, as well as the Address to use when referring to it.
Examples¶
| AddressBlock Subnet | AddressBlock Prefix | Ip Address at offset 1 | Ip Address at offset 20 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10.0.0.0 | 21 | 10.0.0.1 | 10.0.0.20 |
| 192.168.23.0 | 24 | 192.168.23.1 | 192.168.23.20 |
| 169.254.57.127 | 23 | 168.254.57.128 | 168.154.57.147 |
| 2001:db8:: | 96 | 2001:db8::1 | 2001:db8::20 |
| 2001::1000 | 120 | 2001::1001 | 2001::1020 |
IP Address Types¶
ReservedAddress adds a single field which is a description of the reason the Address has been reserved.
DynamicAddress adds a PXE value which is used to PXE boot what ever device gets this lease and wants to PXE boot. This is optional. Ip Addresses come in a few flavors, there is a BaseAddress class which all Ip Addresses belong to that defines an Ip Address as an Offset in an AddressBlock. The flavors of BaseAddress are Address - an Address that can belong to Networked. ReservedAddress - an Address that is reserved by something outside Contractor’s scope. And DynamicAddress - an Address that belongs to a DHCP group.
Networks¶
A Network is used to name the physical/logical networks that NetworkInterface are attached to. AddressBlocks are associated with Networks, with optional vlan tagging. The Network name is used by plugins such as VCenter/AWS/Azure to know the name of the Switch/Network to attach to.
NetworkInterfaces¶
A NetworkInterface is a named connection between a Networked, a set of IpAddressed and a Network. A NetworkInterface has a flag is_provisioning which indicates which interface should be used for communication during provisioning. During provisioning only the primary IP on the provisioning interface is used. Not until the final Structure(i.e., Operating System) is installed and configured will the other interfaces and Ip Addresses be used. NetworkInterface has three flavors, RealNetworkInterface, AbstractNetworkInterface, and AggregatedNetworkInterface.
Interface Types¶
RealNetworkInterface is to identify physical ports, (or in case of things like Blades/VMs, Real as far as the OS/BIOS is concerned). This type requires a MAC address and is PXE bootable.
AbstractNetworkInterface is for interfaces that do not “physically” exist, like internal bridge interfaces, or loop back interfaces.
AggregatedNetworkInterface is for grouping multiple NetworkInterfaces together into a single AbstractNetworkInterface. This is for things such as Port Channels, Bonded Interfaces, LACP, etc. One interface is designated as the master interface. When the final Structure is not installed and configured, this is the interface that is used. There is also a list of the other interfaces that are grouped in as well as a Key/Value field to store configuration information (such as the bonding mode).
NOTE: All networking information is combined together and added to the Configuration Information of the Structure/Foundation as a whole.
NOTE2: Technically speaking other than dedicated NetworkInterfaces, such as the IPMI port on the IPMIFoundation, Foundations do not have Ip Addresses. Thus most Physical Foundations will borrow the Address information of the Structure that they are configured with to do tasks of the Foundation Jobs. Without a Structure, Foundation Jobs that require an Address can not be done. (This is something that will hopefully change in the future by borrowing from a dynamic pool, but for now a Structure is required.)