Network pools provide support for isolated and routed networks in organization VDCs. Although every Provider VDC includes a VXLAN network pool that can support most networking use cases, a system administrator can create other types of network pools if they are needed.

A network pool object represents a collection of vSphere network resources that are contained by a Provider VDC and available to the organization VDCs backed by that Provider VDC. Traffic on each network in a pool is isolated at layer 2 from all other networks.

Only a system administrator can create a network pool. A system administrator can modify a network pool to change properties such as its description, but cannot change the network resources, such as virtual switches or portgroups, that provide backing for it. After a network pool has been associated with an organization VDC (typically when the VDC is created), network resources from the pool are consumed as needed to create isolated or routed organization VDC networks or vApp networks in the VDC.

Note

When you create a Provider VDC, a VxlanPoolType network pool is created automatically on the vCenter server that backs the Provider VDC. This pool is given a name derived from the name of the containing Provider VDC and attached to it at creation. You cannot delete or modify this network pool. You cannot create aVxlanPoolType network pool by any other method. If you rename a Provider VDC, its VxlanPoolType network pool is automatically renamed.

vSphere VXLAN networks are based on the IETF draft VXLAN standard. These networks support local-domain isolation equivalent to what is supported by vSphere isolation-backed networks. In addition, they provide:

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logical networks spanning layer 3 boundaries

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logical networks spanning multiple racks on a single layer 2

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broadcast containment

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higher performance

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greater scale (up to 16 million network addresses)

All network pools are defined by a VMWNetworkPool element. The contents of this element depend on its type, which is specified in its xsi:type attribute. The following values of xsi:type are supported for pools created by a system administrator.

VlanPoolType

This pool type is based on ESXi VLANs on the vCenter server that backs the Provider VDC, and is backed by a range of VLAN IDs.

PortGroupPoolType

This pool type is based on distributed port groups of a vSphere distributed switch or third-party distributed switch on the vCenter server that backs the Provider VDC.

Prerequisites

This operation is restricted to system administrators.

Procedure
1

Retrieve the XML representation of the vSphere platform extensions.

Use a request like this one. 

GET https://vcloud.example.com/api/admin/extension
2

Examine the VMWExtension response to locate the Link element that contains the URL for adding network pools to your cloud.

This element has a rel attribute value of add and a type attribute value of application/vnd.vmware.admin.networkPool+xml, as shown here: 

<Link
   type="application/vnd.vmware.admin.networkPool+xml"
   rel="add"
   href="https://vcloud.example.com/api/admin/extension/networkPools"/>
3

Create a VMWNetworkPool element that specifies the pool type and backing vCenter resources.

Details of this element's contents depend on the type of pool you are creating.

4

POST the VMWNetworkPool element you created in Step 3 to the URL described in Step 2.

The server creates the network pool and returns a VMWNetworkPool element that includes the contents you POSTed, along with a set of Link elements that you can use to access, remove, disable, or modify it. A reference to the new network pool is added to the VMWNetworkPoolReferences element of the VCloud. Network resources you specified in the VMWNetworkPool element are removed from the VimObjectRefList of the vCenter server.

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