An elastic IP address (EIP) is a public IP address that you can purchase and use as an independent resource. You can associate EIPs with Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances in a virtual private cloud (VPC), secondary elastic network interfaces (ENIs), Server Load Balancer (SLB) instances, NAT gateways, and high-availability virtual IP addresses (HAVIPs).
EIPs are used for network address translation (NAT). An EIP resides on a public gateway of Alibaba Cloud and is mapped to a cloud resource through NAT. After EIPs are associated with cloud resources, the cloud resources can use the EIPs to communicate with the Internet.
Features
Feature | Description | References |
Apply for an EIP |
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Associate an EIP with a cloud resource |
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Associate an EIP with an Internet Shared Bandwidth instance | Associate an EIP with an Internet Shared Bandwidth instance to obtain larger bandwidth | |
Create an IP address pool | An IP address pool contains a range of IP addresses that can be allocated to Elastic IP Addresss. You can create an IP address pool and specify a CIDR block for the IP address pool. When you create EIPs, you can allocate IP addresses from the CIDR block of the IP address pool to the EIPs. | |
EIP monitoring | CloudMonitor can collect EIP metrics in real time and generate time series charts in the EIP console. You can troubleshoot issues based on the monitoring metrics. | |
Enable fine-grained monitoring | Fine-grained monitoring monitors traffic fluctuations in real time. You can adjust the maximum bandwidth of EIPs as needed. | |
Manage idle EIPs | Idle EIPs are displayed in the EIP console. You can manage idle EIPs to reduce costs. | |
View operation records | Access to EIPs and user behaviors can be recorded. You can troubleshoot errors based on operation records. | |
Troubleshooting | You can troubleshoot EIP issues such as access failures and access exceptions, and issues related to quotas and fees. |
Line types
EIP supports the line types of BGP (Multi-ISP) and BGP (Multi-ISP) Pro. The following table describes the differences between BGP (Multi-ISP) and BGP (Multi-ISP) Pro.
Item | BGP (Multi-ISP) | BGP (Multi-ISP) Pro |
Benefits | BGP (Multi-ISP) provides high-quality and high-bandwidth BGP lines.
| BGP (Multi-ISP) Pro lines optimize data transmission to mainland China and improve connection quality for international services. Unlike BGP (Multi-ISP), when BGP (Multi-ISP) Pro lines provide services to users in the Chinese mainland (excluding data centers), cross-border connections are established by using Chinese mainland ISP services. This reduces network latency. |
Supported regions | All regions | China (Hong Kong), Japan (Tokyo), Singapore, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Philippines (Manila), Indonesia (Jakarta), and Thailand (Bangkok) Note BGP (Multi-ISP) Pro lines support only the pay-as-you-go billing method in the following regions: Japan (Tokyo), Singapore, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Philippines (Manila), Indonesia (Jakarta), and Thailand (Bangkok). |
Differences between EIPs and ECS static public IP addresses
The following table describes the differences between EIPs and ECS static public IP addresses.
Item | EIP | ECS static public IP address |
Supported networks | VPC | VPC and classic network |
Use as an independent resource | Supported | Unsupported |
Associate with and disassociate from an ECS instance at any time | Supported | Unsupported |
Benefits
EIPs provide the following benefits:
Independent purchase and use
An EIP can be an independent resource within your Alibaba Cloud account. You do not need to purchase EIPs with other computing resources or storage resources.
Flexible association and disassociation
You can associate EIPs with resources and disassociate EIPs from resources anytime. This helps you reduce costs.
Flexible bandwidth adjustment
You can adjust the maximum bandwidth of an EIP based on business requirements. Bandwidth modifications immediately take effect.
Flexible billing and low costs
Multiple billing methods are supported, including subscription and pay-as-you-go (pay-by-bandwidth and pay-by-data-transfer). You can reduce bandwidth costs by associating an EIP with an Internet Shared Bandwidth instance.
Scenarios
EIPs are ideal for a wide array of scenarios if you combine them with other cloud services. For more information, see the following topics:
Work with EIPs
The following methods show how to manage EIPs, for example, how to create an EIP and associate it with a resource:
EIP console: a web interface that supports interactive operations. For more information, see Quick start.
EIP API: You can call the EIP API operations to perform the operations that are supported by the EIP console. For more information about the EIP API operations, see List of operations by function.
Related services
Resources that can be associated with EIPs
EIPs can be associated with different cloud resources to meet different requirements.
Elastic Compute Service: a cloud computing service that supports elastic and efficient computing in the cloud. For more information, see What is ECS?
ENI: a virtual network interface that can be associated with ECS instances. You can use ENIs to deploy high-availability clusters and perform low-cost failover and fine-grained network management. For more information, see ENI overview.
CLB: forwards traffic to backend servers based on forwarding policies. For more information, see What is CLB?
ALB: provides load balancing for application layer scenarios, such as HTTP, HTTPs, and QUIC services. For more information, see What is ALB?
NLB: provides next-generation Layer 4 load balancing for Internet of Everything (IoE) services. For more information, see What is NLB?
NAT Gateway: a network address translation service that supports source network address translation (SNAT) and destination network address translation (DNAT). For more information, see What is NAT Gateway?
HAVIP: a private IP address that you can create and release as an independent resource. You can combine HAVIPs with software that supports high availability, such as Keepalived, to improve your service availability. For more information, see HAVIP.
Other Internet access services provided by Alibaba Cloud
You can also use the following services to reduce costs for Internet connections or improve Internet connection quality.
Internet Shared Bandwidth: supports bandwidth sharing and multiplexing within the same region. For more information, see What is Internet Shared Bandwidth?
Anycast EIPs: supports multiple regions around the world to improve Internet connection availability. For more information, see What is Anycast EIP? and Comparison between Anycast EIPs and EIPs.