The Neutron workflow

In the standard Neutron workflow, networks must be created first, followed by subnets and then ports. The following subsections describe the workflows involved in booting and deleting instances.

Booting an instance

Before an instance can be created, it must be associated with a network that has a corresponding subnet or a precreated port that is associated with a network. The following process documents the steps involved in booting an instance and attaching it to a network:

1. The user creates a network.
2. The user creates a subnet and associates it with the network.
3. The user boots a virtual machine instance and specifies the network.
4. Nova interfaces with Neutron to create a port on the network.
5. Neutron assigns a MAC address and IP address to the newly created port using attributes defined by the subnet.
6. Nova builds the instance's libvirt XML file, which contains local network bridge and MAC address information, and starts the instance.
7. The instance sends a DHCP request during...