openstack team mailing list archive

[Salvatore Orlando <sorlando@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 21 May 2013 05:01, Zhidong Yu <zdyu2000@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> It seems there are two different meaning for this term. One is about a
> sort of usage scenario where the virtual network is *directly *mapped to
> a physical and instance is *directly *connected to the outside world
> without floating IP or L3 agent [1]. The word 'provider' in this context
> could be understood as external *provider *of network service.
>

In the openstack quantum terminology this is usually referred as an
'external' network; it is also sometimes referred as 'public' but the first
term is probably more apt.
An 'external' network can also be a 'provider' network. this would mean
that the cloud admin has specified peculiar physical mappings for the
network which will be used by tenant as an external gateway and/or for
floating IPs.


>
> The other one is about a way to allow administrator to associate virtual
> networks with its underlying physical networks' name/type/segmentation_id,
> so that segregating between different types of network traffic can be
> achieved. This is done by Provider Extension [2].
>

This is exactly what is usually referred as 'provider network'. Might the
confusion arise from the fact that the 'External' network is typically a
provider-owned network?


>
> Do I take it correct? If yes, then I am really confused by the section 5.1
> of Quantum Admin Guide [3][4] where the Provider Extension is discussed but
> somehow the first meaning of Provider Network is referred. For instance,
> the highlighted words in the quotation below is very confusing.
>
> Provider networks allow cloud administrators to create OpenStack
>> Networking networks that map directly to physical networks in the data
>> center.  This is commonly used to give tenants direct access to a
>> "public" network that can be used to reach the Internet.  It may also be
>> used to integrate with VLANs in the network that already have a defined
>> meaning (e.g., allow a VM from the "marketing" department to be placed on
>> the same VLAN as bare-metal marketing hosts in the same data center).
>>
>
I agree this section might need to be clarified with some examples.



>
>
> [1]
> http://docs.openstack.org/trunk/openstack-network/admin/content/use_cases_single_flat.html
> [2]
> http://docs.openstack.org/trunk/openstack-network/admin/content/provider_attributes.html
> [3]
> http://docs.openstack.org/trunk/openstack-network/admin/content/provider_networks.html
> [4]
> http://docs.openstack.org/trunk/openstack-network/admin/content/provider_terminology.html
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~openstack
> Post to     : openstack@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~openstack
> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>
>