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Ask HN: Are VPCs the Same as Subnets?

1 points by sdevonoes ↗ HN
I've been using DigitalOcean's VPC feature which is quite handy. Now, I have to setup my infrastructure using Hetzner... but they do not offer VPCs, although they offer subnets. The setup is very similar in both cases: one has to define some ip range for the subnet which is private (e.g., 10.0.0.0/16).

I don't understand the difference. In both cases, machines belonging to the VPC (or to the subnet) are assigned public ip addresses as well. When using DO VPCs, one must setup firewall rules nevertheless to avoid unwanted traffic.

Are Hetzner's subnets the same as DO's VPCs?

5 comments

[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 23.9 ms ] thread
sdevonoes
Or perhaps Hetzner uses the term "Cloud Networks" instead of VPC? https://community.hetzner.com/tutorials/hcloud-networks-basi...

I'm a bit confused.

slovette
This observation is probably correct.

A “subnet” is simply a predefined and dedicated space of IP addresses given on any type of network (most likely public or at least not-private).

What you probably want is a Private Network (or Private Cloud).

The “cloud” industry has really run rampant with standard networking terminology being used in Marketing and UI labels in ways unaligned to standard definitions, so double check.

But if they have a separate product for VPC/VPN, then the above is most likely true for them.

sdevonoes
Hetzner has nothing about "VPCs" in their documentation.

I think VPN is cool as well, but a bit different than what I want at the moment.

Thank you anyway! I will ask Hetzner directly. I may forward their answer here (if I don't forget).

slovette
It's highly possible, they don't offer individual private networking.
Hetzner_OL
Yes, the OP was right. At Hetzner, 'Networks' provide private layer 3 links between Hetzner Cloud Servers using dedicated network interfaces. You can use them to conveniently construct multi-tier architectures spanning multiple locations. See here for more information: https://docs.hetzner.com/cloud/networks/faq --Katie, Marketing, Hetzner Online