vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
The speed and reliability of Direct Link extends your organization’s data center network and offers more consistent, higher-throughput connectivity, keeping traffic within the IBM Cloud network. When using Direct Link, a private [Application Load Balancer for VPC (ALB)](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-load-balancers) is used to distribute traffic among multiple server instances within the same region of your VPC.

The following diagram shows the Direct Link connection pattern.

Zoom

![Consumer on-premises to workload VPC by using Direct Link](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs-content/v1/content/9ac5c38b41e0aa1cb4ccc6cc7f547751ec805221/framework-financial-services/vpc/images/network-connectivity/consumer-to-workload-same-account/vpc-architecture-consumer-on-prem-to-provider-same-account-DL.svg)

Figure 2. Consumer on-prem to workload VPC using Direct Link

For more information, see:



* [Interconnecting your VPC by using IBM Cloud offerings](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-interconnectivity)
* [Getting started with Direct Link](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/dl/getting-started?topic=dl-get-started-with-ibm-cloud-dl)







 VPN for VPC 

An alternative connectivity pattern requires using the VPN for VPC service to securely connect from your private network to the management VPC. VPN for VPC can be used as a static, route-based VPN or a policy-based VPN to set up an IPsec site-to-site tunnel between your VPC and your on-premises private network, or another VPC.

The following diagram shows the VPN for VPC connection pattern.

Zoom

!
[solution tutorial icon](https://cloud.ibm.com/media/docs/images/homepage/solution-tutorial.svg) [Isolating workloads with a secure private network](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/solution-tutorials?topic=solution-tutorials-secure-network-enclosure)Isolating workloads with a secure private network Solution tutorial

This tutorial highlights how a Virtual Router Appliance (VRA) can be configured on the IBM Cloud to create a secure private network (enclosure). The VRA provides in a single self-managed package, a firewall, VPN gateway, Network Address Translation (NAT) and enterprise-grade routing. In this tutorial, a VRA is used to show how an enclosed, isolated network environment can be created on the IBM Cloud. Within this enclosure application topologies can be created, using the familiar and well known technologies of IP routing, VLANs, IP subnets, firewall rules, virtual and bare-metal servers.

![solution tutorial icon](https://cloud.ibm.com/media/docs/images/homepage/solution-tutorial.svg) [Landing zone](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/secure-infrastructure-vpc)Landing zone Deployment guide

The landing zone deployable architectures create a secure and customizable Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) environment. Deployable code is also available Red Hat OpenShift and virtual servers (VSI).

Deployable![deployment guide icon](https://cloud.ibm.com/media/docs/images/homepage/deployment-guide.svg) [Linking secure private networks over the IBM network](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/solution-tutorials?topic=solution-tutorials-linking-secure-network-enclosures)Linking secure private networks over the IBM network Solution tutorial

This tutorial presents setup of a privately routed IP connection over the IBM Cloud private network between two secure private networks hosted in different data centers. All resources are owned by one IBM Cloud account.
: For secondary volumes attached to a virtual server instance, you can increase capacity in GB increments up to 16,000 GB, depending on the volume's profile. The volume capacity is immediately increased. For more information, see [Expanding block storage volume capacity](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-expanding-block-storage-volumes).





 21 July 2021 

Bare Metal Servers for VPC (closed beta)
: If your account is granted special approval to preview this feature, you can now create bare metal servers to host VMware clusters in VPC. You can set up VMware management applications and create VMware virtual machines (VM) on the bare metal servers. As bare metal servers are integrated with the VPC platform, you can take advantage of the network, storage, and security capabilities provided by the VPC. For more information, see [About Bare Metal Servers for VPC (beta)](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-about-bare-metal-servers).
: The bare metal console feature is temporarily unavailable. An "unauthorized" error is returned if you try to connect to the console.





 13 July 2021 

Instance Identifier Update
: The instance identifier (ID) now includes the SMBIOS system-uuid as a portion of the ID. The ID, including the SMBIOS system-uuid portion, is static and persists for the lifecycle of the virtual server instance until that virtual server instance is deleted. For more information, including how to retrieve this information from within your virtual server, see [Retrieving the virtual server instance identifier](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-managing-virtual-server-instancesretrieve-VSI-instance-identifer) section in Managing virtual server instances.





 6 July 2021 

File storage for VPC
: The file storage general purpose 3 IOPS/GB profile is expanded so you can create file shares up to 32 TB with potential max IOPS performance of 96,000 IOPS.
Although Secure Shell (SSH) and ESXi Shell are useful for provisioning and using various automation tools, they must be disabled after provisioning as a best practice.

With this design, you can manage the ESXi hosts through vSphere Web Client. The first thing to be done after the initial provisioning of your first IBM Cloud bare metal server for IBM Cloud VPC with ESXi is to deploy vCenter® Server.

Then, your vCenter Server is deployed and initially configured for the data center and cluster settings. You must add the IBM Cloud bare metal server for IBM Cloud VPC with ESXi to your vCenter Server and configure and manage them from there.

The vSphere cluster is located in the virtual machines (VMs) that manage the vCenter Server instance and the compute resources for user workloads.



* When your roll-your-own VMware solution in VPC uses vSAN, it is recommended that the minimum number of ESXi hosts in the initial deployment be four.
* When your roll-your-own VMware solution in VPC uses shared file–level storage, the minimum number of ESXi hosts in the initial deployment is two.



You can design your clusters and their sizes based on your need, and use VMware for best practices.

To support more user workloads, you can scale the environment by taking the following actions:



* Deploying more compute hosts of a same profile in your existing clusters.
* Deploying more compute hosts with same or different profile to be managed by the same vCenter appliance.
* Deploying new set of hosts and cluster in your IBM Cloud VPC, but to another zone within the multizone region with a new vCenter Server appliance.







 VMware vSAN design 

The VMware vSAN is a distributed layer of software that runs natively as a part of the ESXi hypervisor. It aggregates local or direct-attached capacity devices of a host cluster and creates a single storage pool that is shared across all hosts in the vSAN cluster. The VMware features that require shared storage, such as HA, vMotion, DRS, and vSAN eliminate the need for external shared storage. They also simplify storage configuration and virtual machine provisioning activities.
Exposing apps with load balancers for VPC 

Virtual Private Cloud

Set up a Load Balancer for VPC to expose your app on the public or private network.

VPC load balancers can be created for VPC clusters only, and can't be created for classic clusters. To load balance in classic clusters, see [Classic: About network load balancers (NLBs)](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/openshift?topic=openshift-loadbalancer-about).

To expose an app in a VPC cluster, you can create a layer 7 Application Load Balancer for VPC. You can optionally create a layer 4 Network Load Balancer for VPC.

The following table describes the basic characteristics of each load balancing option.



Load balancing options for VPC clusters

 Characteristic Application Load Balancer for VPC Network Load Balancer for VPC 

 Supported Red Hat OpenShift version All versions All versions 
 Transport layer Layer 7 Layer 4 
 Types of load balancers Public and private Public and private 
 Supported protocols TCP TCP, UDP 
 Application access Hostname Hostname and static IP address 
 Source IP preservation Configurable* Yes 
 Improved performance with direct server return No Yes 
 Multizone routing Yes No 
 Port ranges No Public only 
 Security groups Yes Public only 





 Network Load Balancer for VPC 

In VPC clusters, set up a layer-4 [Network Load Balancer for VPC](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-network-load-balancers) (VPC NLB) in each zone of your cluster to serve as the external entry point for incoming requests to an app.

VPC NLBs provide several advantages, such as providing higher throughput and better performance by utilizing direct server return (DSR). With DSR, the worker node can send app response packets directly to the client IP address and skip the VPC NLB, decreasing the amount of traffic that the VPC NLB must handle. Additionally, the VPC NLB supports source IP address preservation on all client requests by default.
Release notes for IBM Cloud VPC 

Use the release notes to learn the latest updates to IBM Cloud® Virtual Private Cloud that are grouped by date.

For more information about changes to the IBM Cloud VPC API, see [IBM Cloud VPC API change log](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-api-change-log).

For more information about changes to the IBM Cloud VPC command line interface (CLI), see [IBM Cloud VPC CLI release notes](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-infrastructure-cli-plugin-vpc-cli-rn).



 July 2023 



 14 July 2023 

Very High Memory (vx2d) profile family now available in all regions
: The vx2d profile is now available in the Sao Paolo region. Adding this region makes this profile family available in all regions.





 11 July 2023 

Image lifecycle management for custom images (GA)
: This image lifecycle management feature is now generally available. You can use the UI, CLI, and API to manage the lifecycle of your custom images with the following three statuses. You can move the image back and forth through all the statuses. You can also schedule status changes to manage the entire lifecycle of the image. For more information, see [Custom image lifecycle](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-planning-custom-images&interface=uicustom-image-lifecycle) in [Getting started with custom images](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-planning-custom-images&interface=ui).



* available: The image can be used to create an instance.
* deprecated: The image can be used to create an instance. Using the deprecated status can discourage use of the image before the status changes to obsolete.
* obsolete: The image can't be used to create an instance.









 June 2023 



 27 June 2023 

Snapshots for VPC Cross Regional Copy (GA)
* CLI
* API
* Terraform







 Integrating with Virtual Private Endpoint for VPC 

IBM Cloud® Virtual Private Endpoint (VPE) for VPC enables you to connect to supported IBM Cloud services from your VPC network by using IP addresses of your choosing, allocated from a subnet within your VPC.



 Setting up a VPE gateway for the Transit Gateway service 

Follow instructions in [Getting started](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-about-vpevpe-getting-started) for VPE for VPC to create and configure a VPE gateway for the Transit Gateway service offering.



 Using the VPE for VPC CLI 

After creating an endpoint gateway for Transit Gateway, follow these steps:



1. Update the IBM Cloud CLI to the latest version:

ibmcloud update
2. Update the Transit Gateway CLI plug-in:

ibmcloud plugin update tg-cli







 Using the VPE for VPC API 

After creating an endpoint gateway for the Transit Gateway service, use the service endpoint's FQDN private.transit.cloud.ibm.com in the URL to access the service. For example:

curl https://private.transit.cloud.ibm.com/v1/transit_gateways?version='2020-03-31' -H "Authorization: Bearer $iam_token"





 Using the SDK 

After creating an endpoint gateway for the Transit Gateway service, you must use the private endpoint's FQDN when setting the service's FQDN during construction of the Transit Gateway service object.

private.transit.cloud.ibm.com

For examples of setting the service's FQDN for the specific SDK language, see [SDK API examples](https://cloud.ibm.com/apidocs/transit-gateway?code=goapi-endpoint).





 Using Terraform 

If you plan to access the Transit Gateway service using Terraform, make sure to set the IBMCLOUD_TG_API_ENDPOINT environment variable to private.transit.cloud.ibm.com. For example:
* Compliance: Aligns with the [VPC reference architecture for IBM Cloud for Financial Services](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/framework-financial-services?topic=framework-financial-services-vpc-architecture-about)
* VPCs: Creates a VPC-based topology based on two VPCs by default
* Subnets: Defines multiple subnets in the VPC to define IP ranges and organize resources within the network.
* Public gateways: Includes public gateways that provide connectivity between resources in a VPC and the public internet.
* Access control lists (ACLs): Creates ACLs and define rules for allowing or denying traffic between subnets within a VPC.
* Transit gateways: Creates a transit gateway to connect the two default VPCs that the deployable architecture creates.
* Security groups: Creates security groups to control inbound and outbound traffic to resources within the VPC.
* Key management: Adds key management by integrating the IBM Key Protect for IBM Cloud service or the Hyper Protect Crypto Services. These key management services help you create, manage, and use encryption keys to protect your sensitive data.
* Edge networking: Isolates and speeds traffic to the public internet by using an edge VPC in a specific location, if enabled
* Flow Logs and Activity tracking: Integrates these services to enhance the observability and auditing of your VPC infrastructure.



For more information about the components of VPCs, see [VPC concepts](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/framework-financial-services?topic=framework-financial-services-vpc-architecture-concepts).





 VSI on VPC landing zone 

The VSI on VPC landing zone deployable architecture deploys Virtual Server Instances (VSIs) on IBM Cloud. This deployable architecture provides you with secure and customizable compute resources for running your applications and services.

This deployable architecture supports these features:



* All the features of the VPC landing zone deployable architecture
* VSIs: Creates and configures one or more virtual servers in an IBM Cloud VPC for workloads.
* Subnets for VSIs: Configures the subnets for the VSIs, and specifies which subnets the instances are deployed in.
Use this information when you're creating [generation 1 virtual server instances](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc-on-classic-vsi?topic=vpc-on-classic-vsi-creating-virtual-servers).
2. Use this information when you're creating [generation 2 virtual server instances](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-creating-virtual-servers).



3. Make sure your Cloud Databases deployment's [private endpoint is enabled](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/cloud-databases?topic=cloud-databases-service-endpoints).
4. In the IBM Cloud console, click the menu icon and select -> VPC Infrastructure -> Network -> Virtual private endpoint gateways. Create a VPE for your Cloud Databases instances with the [following instruction](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-about-vpe).
5. After you create your VPE, it might take a few minutes for the new VPE and pDNS to complete the process and begin working for your VPC. Completion is confirmed when you see an IP address set in the [details view](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-vpe-viewing-details-of-an-endpoint-gateway) of the VPE.
6. To make sure pDNS is functioning for your VPE, ssh into your VSI and run nslookup <instance_hostname>. The following example shows the output from running nslookup on instance hostnames of host-0.private.databases.appdomain.cloud, host-1.private.databases.appdomain.cloud, and host-2.private.databases.appdomain.cloud:

root@test-vpc-vsi: nslookup host-0.private.databases.appdomain.cloud
Server:		127.0.0.53
Address:	127.0.0.5353
Non-authoritative answer:
Name:
The primary storage disk has 25 GB for the OS file system, and the auxiliary storage disk has 100 GB for data such as the container runtime and the kubelet. For reliability, the primary and auxiliary storage volumes are local disks instead of storage area networking (SAN). Reliability benefits include higher throughput when serializing bytes to the local disk and reduced file system degradation due to network failures. The auxiliary disk is encrypted by default.
* VPC compute VMs: VPC VMs have one primary disk that is a block storage volume that is attached via the network. The storage layer is not separated from the other networking layers, and both network and storage traffic are routed on the same network. The primary storage disk is used for storing data such as the OS file system, container runtime, and kubelet, and is [encrypted by default](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-block-storage-aboutvpc-storage-encryption).
* To prevent default pod evictions, 10% of the Kubernetes data disk (auxiliary disk in classic, primary boot disk in VPC) is reserved for system components.









 Available flavors for VMs 

The following table shows available worker node flavors for classic and VPC clusters. Worker node flavors vary by cluster type, the zone where you want to create the cluster, the container platform, and the infrastructure provider that you want to use. To see the flavors available in your zone, run ibmcloud ks flavors --zone <zone>.

To view a list of available VM flavors by zone, review the following pages.



* [Classic flavors](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/containers?topic=containers-classic-flavors)
* [VPC Gen 2 flavors](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/containers?topic=containers-vpc-flavors)*



* VPC: For more information about network performance caps for virtual machines, see [VPC profiles](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-profiles). The network speeds refer to the speeds of the worker node network interfaces.
For more information on creating a SSH key, see [Creating your SSH key using the UI](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-ssh-keys&interface=uigenerate-ssh-keys-ui). SSH keys are used to securely connect to the instance after it's running.<br><br>Note: Alpha-numeric combinations are limited to 100 characters. SSH keys can either be RSA or Ed25519. Ed25519 can only be used if the operating system supports this key type. Ed25519 can't be used with Windows or VMware images.<br><br>For more information, see [Getting started with SSH keys](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-ssh-keys). 
 Boot volume The default boot volume size for all profiles is 100 GB. You can specify a larger boot volume capacity, up to 250 GB, depending on what the image allows. You can also specify user tags. 
 Data volumes You can add one or more secondary data volumes to be included when you provision the instance. To add volumes, click Create. You can specify customer-managed encryption and user tags for the volume. 
 Virtual private cloud Specify the IBM Cloud VPC where you want to create your instance. You can use an existing VPC or you can create a new VPC. To create a new VPC, click New VPC. 
 Network interfaces Defines the networking connection into the IBM Cloud VPC. 
 User data You can add user data that automatically performs common configuration tasks or runs scripts. For more information, see [User data](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-user-data). 
 Metadata Disabled by default, lets instances created from this template gather metadata about itself. Click the toggle to turn the metadata service on. For more information, see [About Instance Metadata for VPC](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-imd-about). 
 Host failure auto restart This setting is enabled by default.
By completing this tutorial, you learn how to import the virtual server image from a GitHub repository, configure the deployment and other details, and validate that you can deploy the image to a target IBM Cloud® Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).

Object Storage Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

+1

Selling on IBM Cloud



* 45 minutes
* 2022-08-02



[Onboarding a virtual server image for Power Systems to a private catalog](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/sell?topic=sell-vsipower-onboard)Onboarding a virtual server image for Power Systems to a private catalog

This tutorial walks you through how to onboard a public virtual server image for Power Systems Virtual Server to a private catalog. By completing this tutorial, you learn how to import the virtual server image from a GitHub repository, configure the deployment and other details, and validate that you can deploy the image to a target Power Systems Virtual Server instance.

Object Storage Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

+1

Selling on IBM Cloud



* 45 minutes
* 2022-08-02



[Process big data logs with SQL](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/solution-tutorials?topic=solution-tutorials-big-data-log-analytics)Process big data logs with SQL

In this tutorial, you will build a log analysis pipeline designed to collect, store and analyze log records to support regulatory requirements or aid information discovery. This solution leverages several services available in IBM Cloud: Event Streams, Object Storage, Data Engine (previously SQL Query), Key Protect, and IBM Analytics Engine. A script and tool will assist you to simulate the transmission of web server log messages from a static file to Event Streams.

Object Storage Event Streams

+3

Analytics Engine,Data Engine,Key Protect



* 3 hours
* 2023-05-05



[Enhance cloud security by applying context-based restrictions](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/solution-tutorials?topic=solution-tutorials-cbr-enhanced-security)Enhance cloud security by applying context-based restrictions
Discovering your IBM Cloud classic infrastructure 

The discovery tool in VPC+ Cloud Migration uses account credentials that you provide and searches your existing IBM Cloud classic infrastructure to determine what components you have and how they are configured. This includes components such as:



*  Address prefixes
*  Subnets
*  Virtual server instances
*  Load balancers
*  Security groups
*  SSH keys



Optionally, you can also specify a VRA (Vyatta 5600) configuration file to discover additional information, such as:



*  Access control lists
*  VPN gateways
*  Public gateways



To start the discovery process, select the Migrate Infrastructure option in the VPC+ Cloud Migration interface.



  Next steps 

Refer to [Editing your discovered resources](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/wanclouds-vpc-plus?topic=wanclouds-vpc-plus-edit-resources).