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Create Network Connector

Published April 5, 2023 | Last modified October 20, 2026

Overview

Use F5 Distributed Cloud Console to create a network connector.

About network connectors

You use a network connector to create a connection between two virtual networks on a Customer Edge (CE) 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 the CE acting as a gateway. Since the outside network doesn't have any visibility into 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: This option uses a dynamic routing protocol. The routes from the inside network are injected into the global network to allow that inside network to route to the global network. This is similar to importing and exporting networks with Layer 3 (L3) virtual routing and forwarding (VRF).

  • Direct, Site Local Outside to a Global Network: This option uses a dynamic routing protocol. The routes from the outside network are injected into the global network to allow that outside network to route to the global network. This is similar to importing and exporting networks with 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. This allows you to create controls, such as forward proxy policies.

Before you begin

Before you begin, verify that you have:

Create a network connector

  1. Log in to Distributed Cloud Console.

  2. Select Multi-Cloud Network Connect.

  3. Select Manage > Networking > Network Connectors.

  4. Select Add Network Connector.

  5. In the Name field, enter a name for the object.

  6. Optionally, select a key-value pair from the Labels field and add a description.

  7. 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 by default. The SNAT Source IP Selection is set to Interface IP by default.

    • If you select Direct, Site Local Inside to a Global Network, set the Global Virtual Network from the options available.

    • If you select Direct, Site Local Outside to a Global Network, set the Global Virtual Network from the options available.

  8. From the Select Forward Proxy drop-down menu, select an option for the forward proxy:

    • If you select Enable Forward Proxy, select View Configuration to display more options.

    • To configure Skip Protocol parsing, select Add to set an IP prefix to prevent protocol parsing. Select Add to set a TCP port number to prevent protocol parsing.

    • To configure the Failure handling for upstream connection options, 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 equals two seconds.

    • Select Apply to save the changes.

  9. After you finish, select Add Network Connector.

  10. To view the object's JSON data select >.

Edit a network connector

  1. For your object, select ... > Manage Configuration > Edit Configuration.

  2. Make the changes, and then select Save Network Connector.

Delete a network connector

  1. For your object, select ... > Delete.

  2. In the confirmation window, select Delete.

References

For more information, see:

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