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How to connect a VM to a VPC

This guide explains how to connect a VM to one or more VPC subnets, at creation or on an existing VM, then how to check and configure the interface in the OS. It also covers detaching.

Prerequisites​

  • A Hikube account and a project
  • A VPC with at least one subnet (see Quick start), or the intention to create one from the VM wizard
  • SSH access to the VM for verification

Steps​

1. Connect a new VM​

  1. Open VM Instances > Create an Instance and fill in the first steps.
  2. At the Network step, VPC Networks (Secondary) section, check the VPC you want.
  3. Under Subnets, check one or more subnets.
  4. Finish the wizard: the Summary shows Private Networks with the number of subnets. Click Create instance.

No VPC yet? Click + VPC in the VPC Networks (Secondary) section: the Create VPC dialog lets you create the VPC and its subnets, then checks it automatically. To add a subnet to a checked VPC, click Add subnet, enter a name and a CIDR range, then confirm.

2. Connect an existing VM​

  1. Open the VM's detail page and click Edit.
  2. In Network & Security, under VPC Networks (Secondary), check the VPC, then the subnets.
  3. Click Save.

3. Check in the console​

On the VM's detail page, Network & Security section:

  • VPC Networks lists each VPC with its Connected subnets and their range, for example app (172.16.0.0/24);
  • IP Addresses adds one Secondary address per subnet.

4. Check in the OS​

ip -br addr

Expected result: one additional interface per connected subnet. The OS does not configure it automatically: it first appears without an address, for example:

lo               UNKNOWN        127.0.0.1/8 ::1/128
enp1s0           UP             10.x.x.x/xx ...
enp2s0           DOWN

Enable DHCP on the secondary interface. Example with netplan (Ubuntu):

/etc/netplan/60-vpc.yaml
network:
  version: 2
  ethernets:
    enp2s0:
      dhcp4: true
      dhcp4-overrides:
        use-routes: false
sudo chmod 600 /etc/netplan/60-vpc.yaml
sudo netplan apply
ip -br addr show enp2s0

Expected result: enp2s0 is UP with the Secondary address shown in the console, for example 172.16.0.11/24.

use-routes: false prevents the VPC interface from replacing the default route: Internet access keeps going through the primary interface.

5. Detach a VM​

  1. VM detail page > Edit.
  2. Under VPC Networks (Secondary), uncheck the subnet, or the whole VPC.
  3. Click Save.

Then remove the corresponding configuration in the OS (for example the netplan file you added).

Verification​

From another VM on the same subnet:

ping -c 3 <secondary-address-of-the-vm>

Further reading​