Using provider networks

If you recall from Chapter 3, Neutron API Basics, administrators, or users with the admin role, can create and manage networks known as provider networks that map a logical Neutron network to a physical network in the data center. Creating a provider network requires knowledge of the physical infrastructure, such as 802.1q VLAN IDs and server interfaces used to forward traffic.

Connecting instances to provider networks gives users the ability to access their instances directly by their fixed IP addresses with no hops through a virtual router. The following logical diagram represents a virtual machine instance connected to a provider network:

In the diagram, an instance is directly accessible from the upstream router via its fixed IP address. The fixed IP address is the address configured within the virtual machine. The compute node bridges the physical and virtual network and allows the virtual machine instance to be in the same Layer 2 broadcast domain and Layer 3...