Server Load Balancer:Use security groups as blacklists or whitelists

Sample scenarios

• Before an NLB instance is added to a security group, the listener ports of the NLB instance accept all requests by default.

• After an NLB instance is added to a security group which does not contain Deny rules, the listener ports of the NLB instance accept all requests by default. If you want to allow requests only from specific IP addresses to your NLB instance, you must also create a Deny rule.

The following scenarios are used to demonstrate how whitelists and blacklists work. For more information, see Security group rules.

A blacklist denies access from specific IP addresses.

A whitelist allows access only from specific IP addresses.

Limits

Prerequisites

Four Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances are created. For more information about how to create an ECS instance, see Purchase an ECS instance.

• ECS01 and ECS02 function as backend servers of the NLB instance. Applications are deployed on ECS01 and ECS02.

  The following sample commands are used to deploy test applications on ECS01 and ECS02:

  Commands for deploying an application on ECS01

  yum install -y nginx
  systemctl start nginx.service
  cd /usr/share/nginx/html/
  echo "Hello World ! This is ECS01." > index.html
  

  Commands for deploying an application on ECS02

  yum install -y nginx
  systemctl start nginx.service
  cd /usr/share/nginx/html/
  echo "Hello World ! This is ECS02." > index.html
  

• ECS03 and ECS04 are Internet-facing instances used to access the NLB instance. You can also use an existing Linux server to access the NLB instance. In this case, you do not need to create ECS03 and ECS04.

• A domain name is registered, an Internet content provider (ICP) number is obtained for the domain name, and a CNAME record is created to map the custom domain name to the domain name of your NLB instance. For more information, see Register a generic domain nameRegister a domain name on Alibaba Cloud, ICP filing process, and Step 4: Create a DNS record.

  The following table describes the configurations of the ECS instances used in this topic.

  Instance	ECS configuration	VPC	IP address	Procedure
  ECS01	Instance type: ecs.u1-c1m1.large CPUs and memory: 2 vCPUs and 2 GiB of memory Operating system: Alibaba Cloud Linux 3.2104 LTS 64-bit Network type: VPC	VPC01	Private: 192.168.0.24 Public: not assigned	The instances are specified as the backend servers of the NLB instance.
  ECS02			Private: 192.168.0.37 Public: not assigned
  ECS03		VPC02	Private: 192.168.0.25 Public: 47.XX.XX.55	The instances are used as clients to access the NLB instance.
  ECS04			Private: 192.168.0.26 Public: 101.XX.XX.251

Step 1: Create a server group

1. Log on to the NLB console.

2. In the top navigation bar, select the region where you want to create a server group. In this example, China (Hangzhou) is selected.

3. In the left-side navigation pane, choose NLB > Server Group.

3. On the Server Groups page, click Create Server Group.

4. In the Create Server Group dialog box, set the following parameters and click Create.

   The following table describes the key parameters for creating a server group. Use the default values for other parameters. For more information, see Create a server group.

   Parameter	Description
   Server Group Type	Specify a type of server group. In this example, Server is selected.
   Server Group Name	Enter a name for the server group. In this example, RS01 is used.
   VPC	Select a VPC from the drop-down list. In this example, VPC1 is selected. The server group must reside in the same VPC as ECS01 and ECS02.
   Backend Server Protocol	Select a backend protocol. In this example, TCP is selected.

4. In the Server group created dialog box, click Add Backend Server.

5. On the Backend Servers tab, click Add Backend Server.

6. In the Add Backend Server panel, select ECS01 and ECS02 and click Next.

7. Specify ports and weights for the backend servers and click OK. In this example, port 80 is specified and the default weight is used.

Step 2: Create an NLB instance and configure listeners

1. In the left-side navigation pane, choose NLB > Instances. On the Instances page, click Create NLB.

2. On the NLB (Pay-As-You-Go) page, set the following parameters.

   The following table describes only some of the parameters. For more information about other parameters, see Create an NLB instance.

   • Region: In this example, China (Hangzhou) is selected.

   • Network Type: In this example, Internet is selected.

   • VPC: In this example, VPC01 is selected.

3. Click Buy Now and complete the payment.

4. Return to the Instances page, find the NLB instance that you created, and click the ID of the NLB instance.

5. Click the Listener tab. On the Listener tab, click Quick Create Listener. In the Quick Create Listener dialog box, set the following parameters to create a TCP listener that uses port 80 and click OK.

   Parameter	Procedure
   Listener Protocol	Select a listener protocol. In this example, TCP is selected.
   Listener Port	In this example, port 80 is used.
   Server Group	Select Server Type and select a server group from the drop-down list next to Server Type. In this example, the server group created in Step 1: Create a server group is selected.

6. Check the accessibility of the NLB instance when the NLB instance is not added to a security group. The command curl -s http://whatismyip.akamai.com/ can be used to query the public IP address of the client which sends the request.

   1. Log on to ECS03. Run the following command to test whether ECS03 can access the NLB instance: telnet Domain name 80.

      If you receive echo reply packets as shown in the following figure, ECS03 can access the NLB instance.

   2. Log on to ECS04. Run the following command to test whether ECS04 can access the NLB instance: telnet Domain name 80.

      If you receive echo reply packets as shown in the following figure, ECS04 can access the NLB instance.

   The results show that before the NLB instance is added to a security group, ECS03 and ECS04 can access the NLB instance.

Step 3: Create a security group

Before you add your NLB instance to a security group, you must create a security group in the ECS console. This section describes how to create two security groups.

• Security Group 1 as a blacklist

  Add a Deny rule that denies access from specified IP addresses. In this example, a Deny rule that denies access from the public IP address 47.XX.XX.55 of ECS03 is created. You can keep the default security group rule. The following table describes the configurations of the rule.

  Policy	Priority	Protocol	Port range	Authorization object
  Deny	1	All	Destination: -1/-1	Source: 47.XX.XX.55

• Security Group 2 as a whitelist

  Add an Allow rule that allows access from specific IP addresses and a Deny rule that denies access from specific IP addresses. In this example, an Allow rule that allows access from the public IP address 47.XX.XX.55 of ECS03, and a Deny rule are created. The following table describes the configurations of the rules.

  Policy	Priority	Protocol	Port range	Authorization object
  Yes	1	All	Destination: -1/-1	Source: 47.XX.XX.55
  Deny	100	All	Destination: -1/-1	Source: 0.0.0.0/0

1. Log on to the ECS console.

2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Network & Security > Security Groups.

3. In the top navigation bar, select the region where you want to create a security group. In this example, China (Hangzhou) is selected.

4. On the Security Groups page, click Create Security Group.

5. On the Create Security Group page, set the parameters in the Basic Information section.

   Specify the following parameters. For more information about other parameters, see Create a security group.

   • Network: In this example, VPC 1 is selected. The security group must reside in the same VPC as the NLB instance.

   • Security Group Type: In this example, Basic Security Group is selected.

6. On the Create Security Group page, set the parameters in the Access Rule section.

   1. On the Inbound tab, click Add Rule to add rules based on the configurations of the rules in Security Group 1 and Security Group 2.

   2. Click Create Security Group.

Step 4: Add the NLB instance to the security group and verify the result

References

• For more information about how to add an NLB instance to and remove an NLB instance from a security group, see Add an NLB instance to a security group.

• For more information about how to enable fine-grained access control based on listeners or ports, see Configure security groups for NLB instances.

• For more information about security groups, see Security groups.