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Help:Manage floating IP addresses assigned to Cloud VPS instances

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If you need to expose a Web service, see Using a web proxy to reach Cloud VPS servers from the internet.

A floating IP is a public IP address that is associated to an instance via NAT. A floating IP address can be moved between instances at will. With a floating IP, you can add hostnames to the IP address to make public websites; without a floating IP, you need to use a proxy to access your web stuff.

Overview

Horizon allows projectadmins the ability to manage public IP address(es) assigned to their instance(s). The page shares information about how to request and manage floating (also called public) IP addresses assigned to Cloud VPS instances.

Floating IP addresses

A floating IP address is usually public and may be interchangeably referred to as a public IP address in Cloud VPS documentation.

Request a floating IP address

Only request a Floating IP address if you need to expose non-HTTP/HTTPS endpoints. Floating IP addresses are not automatically available to projects, the default quota is 0.

You can find your quota on the Compute -> Overview tab in Horizon. If you want a new Public IP address, follow the Cloud-VPS (Quota-requests) project in Phabricator to make a request.

Manage floating IP address(es)

Horizon allows you to manage IP addresses for your instances.

Adding a floating IP address for the first time

  1. In 'Project -> Compute -> Instances', locate the instance you want
  2. Click the 'Associate Floating IP' action

Removing a floating IP address

  1. In 'Project -> Compute -> Instances', locate the instance you want
  2. Click the dropdown arrow on the actions and 'Disassociate Floating IP'

After disassociating IPs from an instance, the IP will still be allocated to your project (and thus counted in your quota usage). It can be released completely or associated with another instance on the 'Access & Security -> Floating IPs' tab.

Managing a floating IP address that was released from another instance

Once an IP is allocated to your project it remains associated even when it is not assigned to any instance. This allows you to move the same IP from one instance to another. Associated IPs are displayed on the 'Access & Security -> Floating IPs' tab. From this screen you can associate the allocated IP to another instance or release it from your project.

Horizon Floating IPs tab

Add host name

You can insert an unlimited number of dns records for one public IP, however, you will need to make sure that the hosts file and server configuration are set-up to properly handle the multiple dns records pointing to your instance. DNS entries can be managed by going to 'Project -> DNS -> Domains', and clicking 'Manage Records' next to a domain. If no domains are listed or you want another domain, file a Phabricator task under the #cloud-vps project. Individual projects can no longer create domains directly under wmcloud.org without using the web proxy.

Use the floating IP address

To actually use the floating IP address, you might have to add rules to the security group. The default policy is to drop all packets, so those rules add ACCEPT rules for services you need. To accept from anybody, use the CIDR range 0.0.0.0/0.

See also

Using a web proxy to reach Cloud VPS servers from the internet

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