Create a Network

Overview

Every project in Polystack Networking starts with a network — an isolated Layer 2 broadcast domain that instances attach to via virtual ports. Paired with a subnet, it defines the IP address space, DHCP assignment, and routing gateway for your workload tier.

Prerequisites

An active Polystack account with appropriate permissions
Access to the Polystack Dashboard or CLI configured with credentials
API credentials sourced (source openrc.sh)

Create a Network and Subnet

Dashboard
CLI

Navigate to Networks

Navigate to Network > Networks in the sidebar. Click Create Network.

Configure the network

The create dialog shows the following fields:

Field	Type	Required	Description
Network Name	Text	Yes	Network display name
Description	Text area	No	Optional notes
Available Zone	Dropdown	No	Pin to a specific zone
MTU	Number	No	Maximum transmission unit (68-9000, default: 1500)
Create Subnet	Checkbox	No	Toggle to create a subnet with the network
Port Security Enabled	Switch	No	Enable/disable port security (default: enabled)

Administrators see additional fields: Shared (make visible to all projects), External Network (mark as router external gateway), Project selector, and Provider Network Type (vxlan, flat, vlan, gre) with segmentation ID.

Configure the subnet (if enabled)

When Create Subnet is checked, additional fields appear:

Field	Type	Required	Description
Subnet Name	Text	Yes	Subnet display name
IP Version	Dropdown	Yes	IPv4 or IPv6
CIDR	Text	Yes	Network address block (e.g., `192.168.10.0/24`)

For IPv6, additional fields appear: RA Mode and Address Mode with options dhcpv6-stateful, dhcpv6-stateless, slaac.Advanced options (click to expand):

Field	Type	Description
Disable Gateway	Checkbox	Remove the default gateway from the subnet
Gateway IP	IP input	Custom gateway address (auto-assigned if blank)
Enable DHCP	Radio	Enable or disable DHCP for this subnet
Allocation Pools	Text area	IP range pairs (e.g., `192.168.10.2,192.168.10.200`)
DNS	Text area	One DNS server per line
Host Routes	Text area	Static routes (e.g., `192.168.200.0/24,10.56.1.254`)

Choose a CIDR that does not overlap with existing subnets in your project. Overlapping subnets cause routing failures that are difficult to diagnose.

Create the network

Click Confirm. The network appears in the list with status Active.

Network shows status Active with the configured subnet.

Source credentials

source openrc.sh

Create the network

Create network

openstack network create app-network

Create a subnet

Create subnet with DHCP and DNS

openstack subnet create app-subnet \
  --network app-network \
  --subnet-range 192.168.10.0/24 \
  --gateway 192.168.10.1 \
  --dns-nameserver 8.8.8.8 \
  --dns-nameserver 8.8.4.4

Verify

openstack network list

openstack subnet show app-subnet

Network shows status ACTIVE and the subnet lists the correct CIDR.

View Networks

Dashboard
CLI

Navigate to Network > Networks. The list shows networks in tabs:

Tab	Shows
Current Project Networks	Networks owned by your current project
Shared Networks	Networks shared across projects
External Networks	Networks with external gateway capability
All Networks	All visible networks (admin role required)

List columns:

Column	Description
ID/Name	Network identifier (clickable to view details)
Is Current Project	Whether the network belongs to your project
External	Whether this is an external gateway network (Yes/No)
Shared	Whether the network is shared across projects (Yes/No)
Status	Active, Build, Down, or Error
Subnet Count	Number of subnets (with popover showing details)
Created At	Creation timestamp

Filter by Name, Shared, External, or Project Range.

openstack network list

openstack network list --external

openstack network show app-network

Network Detail

Dashboard
CLI

Click a network name to open the detail page. Three tabs are available:

Detail — Network configuration summary
Subnets — All subnets in this network with CIDR, DHCP status, gateway
Ports — All ports attached to this network (instances, routers, DHCP)

openstack subnet list --network app-network

openstack port list --network app-network

Next Steps

Subnets

Add additional subnets to your network for multi-tier isolation

Routers

Connect your network to the external internet with an L3 router

Security Groups

Define firewall rules to control traffic to your instances

Floating IPs

Allocate public IPs and associate them with your instances

Core Services

Other Services

Overview

Create a Network and Subnet

Navigate to Networks

Configure the network

Configure the subnet (if enabled)

Create the network

Create the network

Create a subnet

Verify

View Networks

Network Detail

Next Steps

Subnets

Routers

Security Groups

Floating IPs

​Overview

​Create a Network and Subnet

Navigate to Networks

Configure the network

Configure the subnet (if enabled)

Create the network

Create the network

Create a subnet

Verify

​View Networks

​Network Detail

​Next Steps

Subnets

Routers

Security Groups

Floating IPs

Overview

Create a Network and Subnet

View Networks

Network Detail

Next Steps