Network Connectors

Objective

This guide provides instructions on how to create a Network Connector using the guided wizard in F5® Distributed Cloud Console (Console). For more information on a site, see Site.

A Network Connector is used to create a connection between two virtual networks on a given site.

There are three types of network connectors:

SNAT, Site Local Inside to Site Local Outside: A default route is added in the inside network with a Customer Edge (CE) server as a gateway. As the outside network does not have any visibility of the inside network, packets are pushed through Source Network Address Translation (SNAT) to the outside virtual network IP address, moving from inside to outside.
Direct, Site Local Inside to a Global Network: Using a dynamic routing protocol, routes from the inside network are injected into the global network to allow that inside network to be routed to the global network, like importing and exporting networks into L3 virtual routing and forwarding (VRF).
Direct, Site Local Outside to a Global Network: Using a dynamic routing protocol, routes from the outside network are injected into the global network to allow that outside network to be routed to the global network, like importing and exporting networks into L3 VRF.

You can also enable a forward proxy on the network connector, where the traffic is pulled from the data plane and inserted into the proxy, allowing you to create controls such as forward proxy policies.

Using the instructions provided in this guide, you will be able to create a Network Connector.

Prerequisites

The following prerequisite applies:

An F5® Distributed Cloud Services Account. If you do not have an account, see Create an Account.

Configuration

The following video shows the Network Connector object configuration:

Create a Network Connector

Perform the following steps:

Step 1: Start Network Connector object creation.

Log into Console.
Click Multi-Cloud Network Connect.

Figure: Console Homepage

Select Manage > Networking > Network Connectors.

Figure: Network Connectors

Click Add Network connector.

Step 2: Configure Network Connector.

In the Name field, enter a name for the Network Connector object.

Figure: Network Connector Configuration

Optionally, select a key-value pair from the Labels field and add an optional description.
From the Select Network Connector Type drop-down menu, select the network type. There are three options:
- If you select SNAT, Site Local Inside to Site Local Outside, the Routing Mode is set to Default Gateway as a default value. The SNAT Source IP Selection is set to Interface IP as a default value.
- If you select Direct, Site Local Inside to a Global Network, set the Global Virtual Network type from the options available.
- If you select Direct, Site Local Outside to a Global Network, set the Global Virtual Network type from the options available.
If you select Direct, Site Local Inside to a Global Network or Direct, Site Local Outside to a Global Network, select a virtual network from the Global Virtual Network drop-down menu. Or click Create new virtual network.
From the Select Forward Proxy drop-down menu, select whether to apply a forward proxy:
- If you select Enable Forward Proxy, click Show Advanced Fields to display more options.
- To configure Skip Protocol parsing, click Add item to set an IP prefix to prevent protocol parsing, and click Add item to set a TCP port number to prevent protocol parsing on.
- To configure Failure handling for upstream connection, set the number of attempts to connect after a failure occurs on an upstream server. Set the Connection Timeout in milliseconds. For example, 2000 milliseconds are equal to 2 seconds.

Figure: Proxy Configuration

Note: For more information, hover your mouse cursor over the ? tooltip.

After you finish, click Save and Exit.

Step 3: View the Network Connector object information.

Click > to view the Network Connector object's JSON data.

Figure: View Network Connector Object Information

Concepts

API References

Network Connector