In this edition of the User Support Series, we’ll take a look at the documentation for Skytap Cloud’s new Network Address Translation (NAT) functionality.
As described in the blog piece Dynamic Network Management by Seth Payne, NAT makes it easy to connect many networks together without having to worry about subnet overlaps. Of course, before using NAT, you’ll have to enable it on the relevant networks, and that’s where the Network Address Translation documentation comes in.
The main NAT document provides a basic overview of NAT, and details on how to implement into your account. Enabling NAT on a Configuration Network walks you through the steps of making a new or existing network “NAT-enabled,” meaning that it will form 1:1 NAT connections with any connecting network.
After enabling NAT on a network, you can directly connect it to one or more Skytap networks using Inter-Configuration Network Routing (ICNR), or connecting it to an external network via VPN. If you’re doing the latter, you’ll need to enable NAT when editing the VPN parameters.
The NAT documentation also contains tips on managing your external IP pool, which will ensure that you never run out of available IPs to map to connecting networks.
Finally, users interested in finding out more about the precise workings of Network Address Translation can read How NAT Works in Skytap Cloud.
With these guides to assist you, you should have no problem integrating NAT into your configurations. But if you find something not covered, or just have additional questions about NAT, don’t hesitate to contact Skytap support.