Creating a cluster network

Cluster Networks for VPC is available for select customers only. Contact IBM Support if you are interested in using this functionality.

Cluster networks allow you to interconnect and define sets of performance criteria for multiple virtual networks. These networks are designed to support tasks that require high-speed data transfer and low latency, such as high-performance computing (HPC) and large-scale data processing.

Before you begin

Review Planning considerations and Known issues and limitations.
Ensure that you have an existing VPC in a region that has capacity for NVIDIA H100 profiles with clustering support.

Currently, the only supported zone is us-east-wdc07-a. For more information about zones, see zone mapping.

You can create a cluster network with the UI, API, CLI, and Terraform.

Creating a cluster network in the UI

To create a cluster network in the UI, follow these steps:

From your browser, open the IBM Cloud console and log in to your account.
Select the Navigation Menu , then click Infrastructure > Cluster networks.
On the Cluster networks for VPC page, click Create +.
In the Location section, edit the following fields, if necessary.
- Geography: Indicates the geography where you want the cluster network created.
- Region: Indicates the region where you want the cluster network created.
- Zone: Indicates the region where you want the cluster network created.
In the Details section, complete the following information:
- Name: Enter a unique name for the virtual network interface, such as my-virtual-network-interface.
- Resource group: Select a resource group for the virtual network interface.
- Tags: (optional) Add tags to help you organize and find your resources. You can add more tags later. For more information, see Working with tags.
- Virtual private cloud: Choose the VPC to associate the cluster network with.
Choose the profile for your cluster network.

Currently, cluster networks only support the NVIDIA H100 profile.
If you want to add cluster subnets to your cluster network, ensure that the Cluster network subnets section is switched On. Then:
- Select the total number of cluster subnets you want to create (8, 16, or 32).
- Add a subnet prefix to your cluster subnets.
Review the information in the Summary panel, and click Create cluster network.

Creating a cluster network from the CLI

To create a cluster network from the CLI, follow these steps:

Set up your CLI environment.

Enable the following feature flag:

export IBMCLOUD_IS_FEATURE_CLUSTER_NETWORK=true

Log in to your account with the CLI. After you enter the password, the system prompts for the account and region that you want to use:
```
ibmcloud login --sso
```
To create a cluster network, enter the following command:
```
ibmcloud is cluster-network-create --vpc VPC --zone ZONE --profile PROFILE [--name NAME] [--subnet-prefixes-cidr SUBNET_PREFIXES_CIDR] [--resource-group-id RESOURCE_GROUP_ID | --resource-group-name RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME] [--output JSON] [-q, --quiet]
```
Where:

-vpc

The ID or name of the VPC.

--zone

The zone this cluster network will reside in. The zone must be listed as supported on the specified cluster network profile.

--profile

Name of the profile to use for this cluster network. Currently, NVIDIA H100 is the only instance profile that you can select. For more information about this profile, see x86-64 instance profiles.

--name

Name for the cluster network.

--subnet-prefixes-cidr

The IPv4 range of the cluster network's subnet prefix, expressed in CIDR format.

--resource-group-id value

ID of the resource group. This ID is mutually exclusive with --resource-group-name.

--resource-group-name value

Name of the resource group. This name is mutually exclusive with --resource-group-id.

--output value

Specify output format, only JSON is supported. One of: JSON.

-q, --quiet

Suppress verbose output.

Command examples

ibmcloud is cluster-network-create --vpc my-vpc --zone us-south-1 --profile profile-name
ibmcloud is cluster-network-create --vpc my-vpc --zone us-south-1 --profile profile-name --name my-cl-net
ibmcloud is cluster-network-create --vpc my-vpc --zone us-south-1 --profile profile-name --name my-cl-net --subnet-prefixes-cidr 10.0.0.24/24
ibmcloud is cluster-network-create --vpc my-vpc --zone us-south-1 --profile profile-name
ibmcloud is cluster-network-create --vpc my-vpc --zone us-south-1 --profile profile-name --name my-cl-net
ibmcloud is cluster-network-create --vpc my-vpc --zone us-south-1 --profile profile-name --name my-cl-net --subnet-prefixes-cidr 10.0.0.24/24 --output JSON

Creating a cluster network with the API

To create a cluster network with the API, follow these steps:

Set up your API environment with the right variables.
Store any additional variables to be used in the API commands; for example:

version (string): The API version, in format YYYY-MM-DD.

When all variables are initiated, run the following command to create the cluster network:

curl -X POST   "$vpc_api_endpoint/v1/cluster_networks?version=$tomorrow&generation=2&maturity=development" -H "Authorization: Bearer $iam_token" -d '{
   "name": "my-cluster-network",
   "profile": {
       "name": "h100"
   },
   "vpc": {
       "id": "r006-4727d842-f94f-4a2d-824a-9bc9b02c523b"
   },
   "zone": {
       "name": "us-south-1"
   }
 }'

To view the complete set of cluster network APIs, see the VPC API reference.