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    Cloud Enterprise Network:Manage inter-region connections

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    Cloud Enterprise Network:Manage inter-region connections

    Last Updated:Feb 17, 2025

    If you want to establish network communication among network instances across regions, such as virtual private clouds (VPCs), virtual border routers (VBRs), Cloud Connect Network (CCN) instances, and IPsec-VPN connections, you need to create inter-region connections between the transit routers and allocate bandwidth resources to the inter-region connections.

    Background information

    跨地域连接

    Bandwidth allocation modes

    Inter-region connections support multiple bandwidth allocation modes. The bandwidth allocation modes supported by Basic Edition transit routers and Enterprise Edition transit routers are different. The following table describes the bandwidth allocation modes supported by each edition of transit routers.

    Note

    In the following table, "支持" indicates that the bandwidth allocation mode is supported by the transit router. "不支持" indicates that the bandwidth allocation mode is not supported by the transit router.

    Bandwidth allocation mode

    Basic Edition transit router

    Enterprise Edition transit router

    Description

    Use scenario

    Supported line type

    Allocate from bandwidth plans

    支持

    支持

    You must purchase a bandwidth plan and associate it with your Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN) instance if you want to allocate bandwidth from a bandwidth plan to inter-region connections. Then, bandwidth is allocated from the bandwidth plan to inter-region connections.

    This allocation mode generates bandwidth plan fees. For more information, see Billing rules.

    Ideal for long-term services with small traffic fluctuations, such as file transfer, data migration, and data synchronization.

    Gold

    Pay-by-data-transfer

    不支持

    支持

    You are charged for data transfer. You can set a bandwidth cap for each inter-region connection to limit the amount of bandwidth that the inter-region connections can consume.

    This allocation mode generates data transfer fees, which are managed by Cloud Data Transfer (CDT). For more information, see Inter-region data transfers.

    Note

    After you create a pay-by-data-transfer inter-region connection, you can run the ping command to test network connectivity. If the ping packet sent to the destination per second is smaller than 100 bytes, the data transfer fee is not charged because it is less than CNY 0.01.

    Ideal for services with large traffic fluctuations and unpredictable bandwidth usage, such as temporary scale-outs, testing, video conferencing, and real-time gaming.

    • Platinum

    • Gold

    Existing pay-by-data-transfer inter-region connections use the Gold line type by default. You can change the line type of existing inter-region connections. For more information, see Change the line type of an inter-region connection.

    Use testing bandwidth

    支持

    不支持

    CEN provides a testing bandwidth value of 1 Kbit/s that is free of charge for you to test the network connectivity of inter-region connections. The testing bandwidth is limited to 1 Kbit/s, and you can use it only for connectivity tests. It does not support service traffic.

    After you connect a network instance to a Basic Edition transit router, you can test the connectivity of inter-region IPv4 networks without creating inter-region connections. By default, the testing bandwidth is used.

    The testing bandwidth can be used only for connectivity tests. It does not support service traffic.

    Gold

    Line types

    Inter-region connections support multiple line types. The network performance varies based on the line type.

    Service level

    Service availability

    Applicable scenario

    Gold

    99.95%

    Services with moderate network quality requirements, such as data synchronization and file transfer.

    Platinum

    99.995%

    Services that require high network quality and low latency, such as securities transactions, online voice chat, video conferencing, and real-time gaming.

    Prerequisites

    • When you allocate bandwidth from a bandwidth plan, make sure that the sum of maximum bandwidth values specified for inter-region connections does not exceed the maximum bandwidth value of the bandwidth plan.

      For example, a CEN instance is associated with a 20 Mbit/s bandwidth plan that connects the Chinese mainland to North America. You can allocate bandwidth from the bandwidth plan to inter-region connections between US (Silicon Valley) and China (Hangzhou), between US (Silicon Valley) and China (Shanghai), and between US (Silicon Valley) and China (Shenzhen). In this case, the sum of the maximum bandwidth values of the inter-region connections cannot exceed 20 Mbit/s.

    • Upper bandwidth limits for inter-region connections that use the pay-by-data-transfer allocation mode:

      • Within the Chinese mainland: 1,000 Mbit/s.

      • Between the Chinese mainland and regions outside the Chinese mainland: 100 Mbit/s.

      If you require a higher bandwidth value, go to the Quotas page in the CEN console or to the Quota Center console to request a quota increase. For more information, see Manage CEN quotas.

    Prerequisites

    • A transit router is deployed in each of the regions to be connected. For more information, see Create a transit router.

    • A bandwidth plan is purchased if you want to use the Allocate from Bandwidth Plan bandwidth allocation mode for the inter-region connection. For more information, see Work with a bandwidth plan.

    Create an inter-region connection

    Use an Enterprise Edition transit router to create an inter-region connection

    1. Log on to the CEN console.

    2. On the Instances page, click the ID of the CEN instance that you want to manage.

    3. On the Basic Information > Transit Router tab, find the transit router in one of the regions to be connected, and click Create Connection in the Actions column.

    4. On the Connection with Peer Network Instance page, set the following parameters and click OK.

      Parameter

      Description

      Network Type

      In this example, Inter-region Connection is selected.

      Region

      Select one of the regions to be connected.

      Transit Router

      The ID of the transit router in the selected region is automatically displayed.

      Attachment Name

      Enter a name for the inter-region connection.

      Peer Region

      Select the other region to be connected.

      Important

      If you want to create an inter-border connection, you must comply with the inter-border network communication requirements. Read the requirements and select I have read and agree to the compliance requirements.

      Transit Router

      The ID of the transit router in the selected region is automatically displayed.

      Tag

      Add tags to the inter-region connection.

      • Tag Key: The tag key can be up to 64 characters in length. It cannot be an empty string or start with acs: or aliyun or contain http:// or https://.

      • Tag Value: The tag value can be an empty string with a maximum length of 128 characters. It cannot start with acs: or aliyun or contain http:// or https://.

      You can add one or more tags to an inter-region connection. For more information about tags, see Manage tags.

      Bandwidth allocation mode

      Select the method that is used to allocate bandwidth to the inter-region connection. Transit routers support the following bandwidth allocation modes:

      • Allocate from Bandwidth Plan: The bandwidth is allocated from a bandwidth plan.

      • Pay-By-Data-Transfer: You are charged for data transfer over the inter-region connection.

      Note

      If you select Pay-By-Data-Transfer, you are charged a data transfer fee, which is managed by CDT. If this is the first time you use CDT, follow the instructions to activate CDT. CDT supports the following types of network communication:

      • CDT for inter-border network communication

      • CDT for intra-border network communication

      Bandwidth Plan

      Select a bandwidth plan that is associated with the CEN instance.

      This parameter is required if Allocate from Bandwidth Plan is selected.

      Bandwidth

      Specify a maximum bandwidth value for the inter-region connection. Unit: Mbit/s.

      • If you select Allocate from Bandwidth Plan, the specified bandwidth value is used as the maximum bandwidth value of the inter-region connection.

      • If you select Pay-By-Data-Transfer, the specified bandwidth value is used as the bandwidth cap of the inter-region connection. If the bandwidth cap is reached, bandwidth throttling is triggered.

        • The default maximum bandwidth for connections within the Chinese mainland is 1,000 Mbit/s.

        • The default bandwidth for connections between the Chinese mainland and regions outside the Chinese mainland is 100 Mbit/s.

      Default Line Type

      Select a line type for the inter-region connection.

      • If Allocate From Bandwidth Plan is selected, only the Gold line type is supported.

      • If Pay-By-Data-Transfer is selected, both the Platinum and Gold line types are supported. For more information, see Line types.

      Advanced Settings

      When you create an inter-region connection, the system automatically selects the following features in the advanced settings:

      • Associate with Default Route Table of Transit Router

        After this feature is enabled, the inter-region connection is automatically associated with the default route table of the transit router. The transit router uses the default route table to forward network traffic across regions.

      • Propagate System Routes to Default Route Table of Transit Router

        After this feature is enabled, the inter-region connection is associated with the default route tables of the transit routers in the connected regions.

      • Automatically Advertise Routes to Peer Region

        After this feature is enabled, the routes in the route table of the transit router in the current region are automatically advertised to the route table of the peer transit router for cross-region communication. The route tables of the transit routers refer to the route tables that are associated with the inter-region connection.

      You can disable the preceding advanced features by clearing the check boxes. If you want to establish network communication between network instances, you can configure associated forwarding and route learning on the transit router. For more information, see Manage routes.

      After you create the inter-region connection, you can view and manage the inter-region connection on the Cross-region Connections tab of the transit router details page.跨地域连接管理.png

      If networks in the regions cannot communicate with each other, you can use the reachability analyzer and the instance diagnostics features of transit routers to troubleshoot errors. For more information, see Work with the reachability analyzer and Diagnose a transfer router.

    Use a Basic Edition transit router to create an inter-region connection

    1. Log on to the CEN console.

    2. On the Instances page, click the ID of the CEN instance that you want to manage.

    3. On the Basic Settings > Transit Router tab, find the transit router in one of the regions to be connected, and click Create Connection in the Actions column.

    4. On the Connection with Peer Network Instance page, set the following parameters and click OK.

      Parameter

      Description

      Network Type

      In this example, Inter-region Connection is selected.

      Region

      Select one of the regions to be connected.

      Transit Router

      The ID of the transit router in the selected region is automatically displayed.

      Peer Region

      Select the other region to be connected.

      Transit Router

      The ID of the transit router in the selected region is automatically displayed.

      Tag

      Add tags to the inter-region connection.

      • Tag Key: The tag key cannot be an empty string. The tag key can be up to 64 characters in length. The key cannot start with acs: or aliyun or contain http:// or https://.

      • Tag Value: The tag value can be an empty string. The tag value can be up to 128 characters in length. The tag value cannot start with acs: or aliyun or contain http:// or https://.

      You can add one or more tags to an inter-region connection. For more information about tags, see Manage tags.

      Bandwidth Plan

      Select a bandwidth plan that is associated with the CEN instance.

      Bandwidth

      Specify a maximum bandwidth value for the inter-region connection. Unit: Mbit/s.

      After you create the inter-region connection, you can view and manage the inter-region connection on the Cross-region Connections tab of the transit router details page.

      跨地域连接-基础版.png

      If networks in the regions cannot communicate with each other, you can use the reachability analyzer to troubleshoot errors. For more information, see Work with the reachability analyzer.

    What to do next

    Monitor inter-region connections

    Modify the bandwidth allocation mode of an inter-region connection

    • You can modify the bandwidth allocation mode only of inter-region connections that are created on Enterprise Edition transit routers. If both the local and peer transit routers are of Basic Edition, you cannot modify the bandwidth allocation mode of the inter-region connection.

    • If you want to switch the bandwidth allocation mode from pay-by-data-transfer to a bandwidth plan, you must associate the CEN instance with a bandwidth plan. For more information, see Work with a bandwidth plan.

    • If you want to switch the bandwidth allocation mode from a bandwidth plan to pay-by-data-transfer, the default maximum bandwidth value supported by the pay-by-data-transfer allocation mode must not be smaller than the current maximum bandwidth value. You can increase the default maximum bandwidth of pay-by-data-transfer inter-region connections in the CEN or Quota Center console. For more information, see Manage CEN quotas.

      Assume that the maximum bandwidth value of the inter-region connection between the US (Silicon Valley) and US (Virginia) regions is 101 Mbit/s, and the bandwidth is allocated from a bandwidth plan. Before you switch the bandwidth allocation mode to pay-by-data-transfer, you must first increase the default maximum bandwidth value supported by the pay-by-data-transfer mode to a value that is equal to or greater than 101 Mbit/s. For inter-region connections between regions inside the Chinese mainland, or between the Chinese mainland and regions outside the Chinese mainland, the default maximum bandwidth value supported by the pay-by-data-transfer mode is 100 Mbit/s.

    1. Log on to the CEN console.

    2. On the Instances page, click the ID of the CEN instance that you want to manage.

    3. On the Basic Information > Transit Router tab, click the ID of the transit router to which the inter-region connection belongs.

    4. On the details page of the transit router, click the Cross-region Connections tab.

    5. On the Cross-region Connections tan, find the inter-region connection that you want to manage and click Modify in the Bandwidth Allocation Mode column.

    6. Modify the bandwidth allocation mode based on the following scenarios:

      • Switch from pay-as-you-go to a bandwidth plan

        In the Change Bandwidth Allocation Mode dialog box, select Switch to Allocate from Bandwidth Plan, select a bandwidth plan, specify a maximum bandwidth value, and then click OK.

      • Switch from a bandwidth plan to pay-as-you-go

        In the Change Bandwidth Allocation Mode dialog box, select Switch to Pay-By-Data-Transfer and click OK.

        Note

        If you select Pay-By-Data-Transfer, you are charged a data transfer fee, which is managed by CDT. If this is the first time you use CDT, follow the instructions to activate CDT.

    Modify the maximum bandwidth value of an inter-region connection

    After you create an inter-region connection, you can modify the bandwidth value of the inter-region connection based on your business requirements.

    1. Log on to the CEN console.

    2. On the Instances page, click the ID of the CEN instance that you want to manage.

    3. On the Basic Information > Transit Router tab, click the ID of the transit router to which the inter-region connection belongs.

    4. On the details page of the transit router, click the Cross-region Connections tab.

    5. On the Cross-region Connections tab, find the inter-region connection that you want to manage and click Modify in the Maximum Bandwidth column.

    6. In the Set Region Connection dialog box, set a bandwidth value and click OK.

      • If the bandwidth is allocated from a bandwidth plan, the bandwidth value cannot exceed the maximum bandwidth of the bandwidth plan. You can increase the maximum bandwidth of a bandwidth plan. For more information, see Resize a bandwidth plan.

      • If the inter-region connection uses the pay-by-data-transfer bandwidth allocation mode, the peak bandwidth of the inter-region connection cannot exceed the default maximum bandwidth. You can increase the default maximum bandwidth of an inter-region connection. For more information, see Manage CEN quotas.

    7. If you want to reduce the maximum bandwidth value, confirm the note in the Set Bandwidth for Inter-region Connection message and click OK.

    Change the line type of an inter-region connection

    You can change the line type of pay-by-data-transfer inter-region connections.

    1. Log on to the CEN console.

    2. On the Instances page, click the ID of the CEN instance that you want to manage.

    3. On the Basic Information > Transit Router tab, click the ID of the transit router to which the inter-region connection belongs.

    4. On the details page of the transit router, click the Cross-region Connections tab.

    5. On the Cross-region Connections tab, find the inter-region connection that you want to manage and click Modify in the Default Line Type column.

    6. In the Modify Default Line Type dialog box, select a line type and click OK.

      Before you change the line type, we recommend that you view the network latency of connections that use different line types in the NIS console. For more information, see View network performance between regions.

    Associate an inter-region connection with a different transit router route table

    After you create an inter-region connection, you can change the transit router route table that is associated with the inter-region connection.

    Warning

    • This method is supported only by Enterprise Edition transit routers.

    • If the inter-region connection has route synchronization enabled, the routes advertised to the peer transit router are withdrawn after the inter-region connection is associated with a different transit router route table. The routes in the new route table are synchronized to the route table of the peer transit router. The route table of the peer transit router refers to the route table that is in route learning relationship with the inter-region connection. For more information, see Route synchronization.

    1. Log on to the CEN console.

    2. On the Instances page, click the ID of the CEN instance that you want to manage.

    3. On the Basic Information > Transit Router tab, click the ID of the transit router that you want to manage.

    4. On the Cross-region Connections tab, click the ID of the inter-region connection that you want to manage.

    5. In the Attachment Details panel, find the Basic Information section and click Modify next to Associated Route Table.

    6. In the Modify Route Table dialog box, select a route table and click OK.

    Delete an inter-region connection

    If your service no longer requires inter-region network communication, you can delete the inter-region connections.

    1. Log on to the CEN console.

    2. On the Instances page, click the ID of the CEN instance that you want to manage.

    3. On the Basic Information > Transit Router tab, click the ID of the transit router to which the inter-region connection belongs.

      Delete an inter-region connection from an Enterprise Edition transit router

      If the inter-region connection that you want to delete is on an Enterprise Edition transit router, perform the following steps to delete the inter-region connection:

      Warning

      • You can delete the inter-region connections and all relevant configurations at the same time. To prevent adverse impacts on your workloads, we recommend that you check and confirm every configuration item before you delete the configurations.

      • If the inter-region connection is created between a Basic Edition transit router and an Enterprise Edition transit router, delete the inter-region connection from the Enterprise Edition transit router.

      1. On the details page of the transit router, click the Cross-region Connections tab.

      2. On the Cross-region Connections tab, find the inter-region connection that you want to delete and click Delete in the Actions column.

      3. In the dialog box that appears, check and confirm every configuration item, select Confirm that the deletion of the configurations does not compromise your service stability and can be deleted at the same time, and then click OK.

      4. In the Are you sure that you want to delete the instance? message, check the information and click OK.

      Delete an inter-region connection from a Basic Edition transit router

      If the inter-region connection that you want to delete is on a Basic Edition transit router, perform the following steps to delete the inter-region connection:

      1. On the details page of the transit router, click the Cross-region Connections tab.

      2. On the Cross-region Connections tab, find the inter-region connection that you want to delete and click Delete in the Actions column.

      3. In the Delete Region Connection message, click OK.

    Call API operations to create and manage inter-region connections

    You can use tools such as Alibaba Cloud SDKs (recommended), Alibaba Cloud CLI, Terraform, and Resource Orchestration Service (ROS) to create and manage inter-region connections by calling API operations. For more information, see the following API references:

    References

    For more information about how to use inter-region connections to establish communication across VPCs, see the following topics: