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  6. Connect private networks
  7. Virtual networks

Virtual networks

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Virtual networks allow you to connect private networks that have overlapping IP ranges without creating conflicts for users or services. For example, an organization may want to expose two distinct virtual private cloud (VPC) networks which they consider to be “production” and “staging”. However, if the two private networks happened to receive the same RFC 1918 IP assignment, there may be two different resources with the same IP address. By creating two separate virtual networks, you can deterministically route traffic to duplicative private addresses like 10.128.0.1/32 staging and 10.128.0.1/32 production. These virtual networks will appear as user-selectable options within the WARP client GUI.

​​ Use cases

Here are a few scenarios where virtual networks may prove useful:

  • Manage production and staging environments that use the same address space.
  • Manage acquisitions or mergers between organizations that use the same address space.
  • Allow IT professional services to access their customer’s network for various administration and management purposes.
  • Allow developers or homelab users to deterministically route traffic through their home network to enforce additional security controls.
  • Guarantee additional segmentation (beyond just policy enforcement) between networks and resources for security reasons, while keeping all configuration within a single Cloudflare account.

​​ Prerequisites

​​ Create a virtual network

The following example demonstrates how to add two overlapping IP routes to Cloudflare (10.128.0.1/32 staging and 10.128.0.1/32 production).

To route overlapping IPs over virtual networks:

  1. First, create two unique virtual networks:
    1. In Zero Trust, go to Settings > WARP Client.
    2. Find the Virtual networks setting and select Manage.
    3. Select Create virtual network.
    4. Name your virtual network staging-vnet and select Save.
    5. Repeat Steps 1a-1d to create another virtual network called production-vnet.
  2. Next, create a Cloudflare Tunnel for each private network:
    1. Go to Networks > Tunnels.
    2. Select Create a tunnel.
    3. Name your tunnel Staging tunnel and select Save tunnel.
    4. Install the connector within your staging environment.
    5. In the Private Network tab, add 10.128.0.1/32.
    6. Select Additional settings. Under Virtual networks, select staging-vnet.
    7. Save the tunnel.
    8. Repeat Steps 2a-2g to create another tunnel called Production tunnel. Be sure to install the connector within your production environment and assign the route to production-vnet.

We now have two overlapping IP addresses routed over staging-vnet and production-vnet respectively. You can use the Cloudflare WARP client to switch between virtual networks.

To route overlapping IPs over virtual networks:

  1. Create a tunnel for each private network:

    1. Within your staging environment, authenticate cloudflared:

      $ cloudflared login

    2. Create a tunnel to connect your staging network to Cloudflare.

      $ cloudflared tunnel create staging-tunnel

    3. Within your production environment, authenticate cloudflared:

      $ cloudflared login

    4. Create a tunnel to connect your production network to Cloudflare.

      $ cloudflared tunnel create production-tunnel

The following steps may be executed from any cloudflared instance.

  1. Create two unique virtual networks.

    $ cloudflared tunnel vnet add staging-vnet

    $ cloudflared tunnel vnet add production-vnet

  2. Before moving on, run the following command to verify that your newly created virtual networks are listed correctly:

    $ cloudflared tunnel vnet list

  1. Configure your tunnels with the IP/CIDR range of your private networks, and assign the tunnels to their respective virtual networks.

    $ cloudflared tunnel route ip add --vnet staging-vnet 10.128.0.3/32 staging-tunnel

    $ cloudflared tunnel route ip add --vnet production-vnet 10.128.0.3/32 production-tunnel

  1. Verify that the IP routes are listed correctly:

    $ cloudflared tunnel route ip list

We now have two overlapping IP addresses routed over staging-vnet and production-vnet respectively.

  1. Within your staging environment, create a configuration file for staging-tunnel. The configuration file will be structured as follows:

    tunnel: <Tunnel-UUID>
    credentials-file: /root/.cloudflared/credentials-file.json
    warp-routing:
        enabled: true

  2. Run your tunnel.

    $ cloudflared tunnel run staging-tunnel

  3. Within your production environment, repeat Steps 6 and 7 for production-tunnel.

You can use now the Cloudflare WARP client to switch between virtual networks.

​​ Delete a virtual network

To delete a virtual network:

  1. In Zero Trust, go to Networks > Tunnels and ensure that no IP routes are assigned to the virtual network you are trying to delete. If your virtual network is in use, delete the route or reassign it to a different virtual network.

  2. Next, go to Settings > WARP Client.

  3. Find the Virtual networks setting and select Manage.

  4. Select the three-dot menu for your virtual network and select Delete.

You can optionally delete the tunnel associated with your virtual network.

To delete a virtual network:

  1. Delete all IP routes in the virtual network. For example,

    $ cloudflared tunnel route ip delete --vnet staging-vnet 10.128.0.3/32

  2. (Optional) Delete the tunnel associated with the virtual network.

    $ cloudflared tunnel delete staging-tunnel

  3. Delete the virtual network.

    $ cloudflared tunnel vnet delete staging-vnet

You can verify that the virtual network was successfully deleted by typing cloudflared tunnel vnet list.

​​ Connect to a virtual network

​​ Windows, macOS, and Linux

  1. Open the WARP client.
  2. Go to Settings > Gateway with WARP > Virtual Networks.
  3. Choose the virtual network you want to connect to, for example staging-vnet.

When you visit 10.128.0.3/32, WARP will route your request to the staging environment.

​​ iOS, Android, and ChromeOS

  1. Launch the Cloudflare One Agent app.
  2. Go to Advanced > Connection options > Virtual networks.
  3. Choose the virtual network you want to connect to, for example staging-vnet.

When you visit 10.128.0.3/32, WARP will route your request to the staging environment.