Managing virtual routers

Virtual routers provide L3 services such as routing and Source Network Address Translation (SNAT) between virtual and physical networks, or different virtual networks:

• A virtual router between virtual and physical networks provides access to public networks, such as the Internet, for VMs connected to this virtual network.

• A virtual router between different virtual networks provides network communication for VMs connected to these virtual networks.

A virtual router has two types of ports:

• An external gateway that is connected to a physical network.

• An internal port that is connected to a virtual network.

With virtual routers, you can do the following:

• Create virtual routers

• Change external or internal router interfaces

• Create, edit, and delete static routes

• Change a router name

• Delete a router

Limitations

• A router can only connect networks that have IP management enabled.

• You can delete a virtual router if no floating IP addresses are associated with any network it is connected to.

Prerequisites

• Compute networks are created, as described in Managing virtual networks.
• The compute networks that are to be connected to a router have a gateway specified.

To create a virtual router

1. Navigate to the Routers screen, and then click Add router.

2. In the Add router window:

   1. Specify a router name.

   2. From the Network drop-down menu, select a physical network through which external access will be provided via an external gateway. The new external gateway will pick an unused IP address from the selected physical network.

   3. In the Add internal interfaces section, select one or more virtual networks to connect to a router via internal interfaces. The new internal interfaces will attempt to use the gateway IP address of the selected virtual networks by default.

   4. Select or deselect the SNAT check box to enable or disable SNAT on the external gateway of the router. With SNAT enabled, the router replaces VM private IP addresses with the public IP address of its external gateway.

3. Click Create.