What a private network is#
A private network connects several of your own servers so they can talk to each other directly, without going over the public internet. Every server you add to a network gets a private IP on a shared subnet, and you can give it a short hostname so the other members can reach it by name instead of by raw address. This helps when you run more than one server and want them to communicate, for example a game server reaching a database, or a proxy reaching backend servers on a stable internal address.
A private network is a different thing from proxy routes and from a server's public allocations. A private network keeps traffic between your own servers, while a proxy route exposes a web service to the public. For the public side, see Networking for allocations and subdomains, and Proxy routes for the public side.
Private Networks item in its sidebar, and you manage the
networks themselves from the account-level Networks page.
Both are separate from Networking and from Proxy Routes.Creating a network#
Networks are created and owned at the account level, then servers join
them. Open the Networks page, which lists every network
you have along with a count chip next to the title that reads
1 of 5, showing how many of your five allowed networks are
in use. The chip turns amber once you reach the limit. If you have no
networks yet, the empty state reads No networks yet with a
Create Network button. Otherwise, select
New Network in the top right. That button is hidden once
you reach five networks.
The create form asks only for a name. Type one into the
Network name field and select Create, or
press Enter. The panel assigns the subnet for you, so you do not pick
an IP range. Select Cancel to dismiss the form without
creating anything.
Adding a server to a network#
You can add a server to a network from two places. On the
network's own page, open it from the Networks list to see its
subnet and a Members list, then select
Add Server and pick one of your servers from the
Select a server... dropdown. Only servers you own and that
are not already members appear as options.
The other way is from the server itself. Open the server, go to
Private Networks in the sidebar, and you will see which
networks the server belongs to. If it is not in any network, the page
reads This server is not in any private networks. When
there are networks the server can join, select
Add to Network.
The add form has two fields. The first is a dropdown that starts on
Select a network... and lists each available network with
its subnet in parentheses, for example a name followed by something
like (10.0.0.0/24). Networks the server already belongs to
are filtered out. The second field is a hostname. As you type, the
panel lowercases your input and strips anything that is not a letter,
number, or hyphen, up to 63 characters. A fixed
.pyro suffix sits to the right of the field, so a hostname
of db becomes db.pyro on the network. Both
fields are required. Select Add to join, or
Cancel to back out.
Add button stays disabled until you have both a
selected network and a hostname. If the request fails, the form shows
the error returned by the panel, such as
Failed to add to network.Managing memberships#
On the server's Private Networks page, each network
the server belongs to is a row showing the network name, the private IP
the server was assigned on that network, and, if you set one, its
hostname.pyro name. Selecting a row opens that
network's detail page, where you can see every member server and
add or remove servers. On that page each member row also carries a
small status dot, green for running, blue while installing or
restoring, and red when the server is suspended.
To take a server off a network, select the trash icon on its row. From
the server's own page the panel asks you to confirm with a
Leave Network dialog and a Remove button;
from the network detail page the same action shows a
Remove Server dialog. Either way it warns that the
server's private IP will be released. Removing a server only takes
it off that one network and does not affect its other memberships or
its public allocations.
Deleting a network#
To remove a network entirely, open it from the Networks list and select
the trash icon next to its name. A Delete Network dialog
asks you to confirm and explains that all member servers will be
disconnected and their private IPs released, and that the action cannot
be undone. Deleting a network frees one of your five slots, so the
count chip drops and New Network comes back if you were at
the limit.
network.read
permission. If a subuser does not have it, the
Private Networks item will not appear in the server
sidebar. See
Users and permissions
for how to grant access.