You’re about to demonstrate the power of the NetFoundry platform by spinning up a secure, private, edge-to-cloud network between your endpoint and AWS, in a matter of minutes.
Let's Get StartedGetting Started is Easy
We'll walk you through the simple steps below to spin up your first network.
1. PREREQUISITES
Sign up for both an AWS and NetFoundry Accounts if you don't have one. They're free.
Sign up for a AWS Account
Click Here
Sign up for a NetFoundry Account
Click Here
2. CREATE YOUR NETWORK
a. Log into your NetFoundry console
b. If you have not created a network yet, “Create A New Network” and give it a name (ex: NFdemo).
c. It will take approximately 3-5 minutes for you network to be created. While the network is being created, the icon to the left of the network name will spin. Once your network is ready, the icon turns green.
3. ADD A NETFOUNDRY GATEWAY
We will break this tutorial in to two pieces. If you want to use a prep built NFN gateway running a hello world web service then follow the instructions below. If you simply want a more generic NFN gateway then we can create a gateway and use an existing web service i.e. add www.google.com (172.217.12.196) and point it to 10.0.20.1 on your NFN client.
For the NFN prebuilt webserver:
a. From the NetFoundry Console left-hand navigation, select GATEWAYS.
b. In the upper right, click the + sign to add a gateway.
c. Select the “Create an AWS Gateway” option
d. Give your gateway a name (ex: gwDemo)
e. From the dropdown menu, select the region in which you plan to launch the AWS gateway. Hit the “Create” button.
f. Click on your Gateway Registration Key (this will copy it to your clipboard).
g. Hit Esc icon in upper right to close the window
For the generic NFN gateway:
a. Left click on “”LAUNCH GATEWAY USING
CLOUD FORMATION SCRIPT”. This will automatically copy your registration key into the appropriate field.
b. Select the default VPCID (virtual private cloud ID).
c. Amazon requires users to set up a private/public key pair before you launch a virtual machine. If you have not done this then please review this documentation. To add a KeyPair search in the aws console for EC2. Select KeyPair. Then Select create key pair. Add a name i.e. admin. Be sure to store your .pem in a secure place.
d. Select the KeyName that you would like to use i.e. admin if you followed step c.
e. Select a subnet. There are three subnets available by default each one is associated with a different service area. It doesn’t matter which one you choose for this tutorial.
f. Click create stack.
g. Click on resources. Then click on NFNEC2Instance. This will take you to your new NetFoundry EC2 instance!
h. Under the description tab of your NFN Gateway instance there is a field that says private IPs i.e. 172.xx.xx.xx. This is your private network IP. Copy this value.
i. Go back to the NetFoundry Console and click update. It will take a few moments for your gateway to register.
4. INSTALL NETFOUNDRY MULTICLOUD GATEWAY FOR AWS
For the NFN prebuilt webserver:
a. Click here to add NetFoundry MultiCloud Gateway to your AWS account – this will take you to your AWS account
b. CloudFormation will launch in the last region your account was signed in. If you would like to launch in a different region, simply switch regions from the drop down. Please be sure you are launching in the same region you selected your NetFoundry gateway to be in (from 3.e above).
c. Once in the CloudFormation Console, the template should already be filled in. Click Next to continue.
d. Paste your Gateway Registration key in the appropriate field. Click Next to continue.
e. On the next page (“Options”) – leave all defaults. Click Next to continue.
f. From the Review page… Click Create to launch the stack
g. This CloudFormation will create a simple VPC, subnet, routing table, internet gateway & two (2) EC2 instances along with a security group to allow port 80(http) from anywhere to the Demo App.
• One t2.micro for the Hello World web page
• One t2.micro for the NetFoundry MultiCloud Gateway
h. Once the stack is launched, go to the CloudFormation “Output” section of the stack just created. You will find the internal IP address of the Demo App you will need for the next section. You can also test the external URL of the Demo App to make sure it’s accessible. The internal URL will only work once the NFN network is complete. (This could take 2-3 minutes)
Note
Before you can start using the NetFoundry CloudFormation template, you will need to accept the software terms in the AWS Marketplace.
- Login to AWS if needed.
- Click on the "Manual Launch" tab
- Click on "Accept Software Terms"
5. CREATE A NETFOUNDRY SERVICE
a. From the Left side panel select Network Dashboard. Then select SERVICES.
b. In the upper right, click the + sign to add a service.
c. Select “CREATE AN IP Host Service”.
d. Add a service name (ex: svcDemo).
e. Select a GATEWAY from the drop down menu i.e. the one that you create in 4.
f. For IP address if you used the prebuilt vm with the hello world page use the private IP copied from above (step 4.h). Otherwise if you built your own NFN gateway we can just use google. www.google.com corresponds to 172.217.12.196. Copy the ip into your browser and you will be directed to the main google search engine. We can paste that ip into the IP address field and change the intercept ip to 10.0.1.20.
g. Port/range = 80
h. (Skip this step if you are using the generic NFN gateway i.e. www.google.com ) Intercept IP can be anything you want (ex: 1.2.3.4), but it’s recommended to use the private IP copied from step (4.h) – this will be the IP address you use to internally access the Hello World web page
i. Protocol Type = TCP/UDP
j. Hit the “Create” button (NOTE: The Service you just created may take a couple minutes to complete before it becomes available in the list – the icon will turn GREEN when it is ready)
6. CREATE A NETFOUNDRY CLIENT
a. From the NetFoundry Console left-hand navigation select NETWORK DASHBOARD, select CLIENTS.
b. In the upper right, click the + sign to add a client.
c. Add a client name (ex: MikesMac).
d. Select Standard from the drop down menu.
e. From the Location dropdown menu, select the region closest to where you are located (NetFoundry uses this location information to optimize network).
f. Hit the “Create” button.
g. Copy the client registration key to your clipboard.
h. Hit Esc icon in upper right to close the window.
i. Click on the DOWNLOAD INSTALL PACKAGE.
j. Click DOWNLOAD on the appropriate installer.
7. INSTALL NETFOUNDRY CLIENT
a. If you didn’t do step 6i then go to here and download the client for your Mac.
b. Follow the install instructions and enter the client registration key you copied (step 6.f).
Attention Mac users: If you experience issues trying to install the .pkg. Go to Security & Privacy -> general -> select open anyway for Nfninstall.pkg. You may need to install helper and grant dispersive systems access to system. Note that the NFN client will be visible on the top right of the navigation bar. You can click on it to activate it.
8. CREATE NETFOUNDRY APPWAN
a. Make sure your Service in Step 5 has completed (the icon next to the Service name will be green)
b. From the NetFoundry Console left-hand navigation select NETWORK DASHBOARD. Then select APPWANS.
c. In the upper right, click the + sign to add a new AppWAN.
d. Under SIMPLE CLOUD APPWAN select CREATE APPWAN.
e. Add an APPWAN NAME (ex: HelloWorld).
f. Underneath the “Where is you app located/ hosted?” Select the gateway from step 4.
g. Add an associated ip address i.e. 10.1.1.20, port range 80, protocol TCP/ UDP.
f. Add the client that you created from step 7.
g. Hit the “Create” button.
(Skip these steps if you are using the NFN gateway with the hello world webserver)
h. From the left panel select MANAGE ENDPOINTS. Select the client from step 7.
i. Click on your newly created APPWAN.
j. Scroll down to your services and select your service i.e. the www.google.com service.
k. From the NetFoundry Console left-hand navigation select NETWORK DASHBOARD. Then select CLIENTS.
l. Select your client from step 6.
m. Select the + next to your APPWAN and add it.
9. TEST CONNECTION WITH THE HELLO WORLD WEBPAGE
a. Make sure your NetFoundry client is running
• For Mac: Open NFN Client in Applications
• For PC: Open NFN Client from the Start Menu
b. If you are using the prebuilt gateway enter the intercept IP you entered above (step 5.g). Otherwise if you used a generic NFN gateway go to 10.0.20.1 it will take you to www.google.com. You can verify that you are using your NFN client by clicking on the services tab in the NFN client.
c. The Hello World webpage should come up for the webserver.
d. Turn of the NetFoundry client.
e. Refresh your browser.
10. REMOVAL of AWS RESOURCE, ONCE DEMO IS COMPLETE.
a. From the AWS Console, Select the service “CloudFormation”
b. Select the stack “NFNDemo” from the list
c. Click DELETE.