You can use elastic network interfaces (ENIs) to deploy high-availability clusters and perform cost-effective failover and fine-grained network management. This topic describes how to separately create an ENI in the Elastic Compute Service (ECS) console.

Prerequisites

Background information

You can use one of the following methods to create an ENI. This topic describes how to separately create an ENI.
  • Create an ENI when you create an instance.

    When you create an instance, you can bind only one primary ENI and one secondary ENI to the instance. If the secondary ENI is not unbound from the instance, the secondary ENI is released together with the instance. For more information, see Bind an ENI when you create an instance.

  • Separately create an ENI.

    ENIs that are separately created are secondary ENIs and can be bound to instances.

You can create or delete ENIs, bind ENIs to instances, or unbind ENIs from instances. You can configure notifications for ENI operation events by using CloudMonitor to obtain ENI operation results, such as whether ENIs are created. For more information, see ENI operation event notifications.

Procedure

  1. Log on to the ECS console.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Network & Security > ENIs.
  3. In the top navigation bar, select a region.
  4. Click Create ENI.
  5. In the Create ENI dialog box, configure the parameters described in the following table.
    ParameterDescription
    ENI NameEnter a name for the ENI.
    VPCSelect a VPC. If you want to bind the created ENI to an instance, select the VPC in which the instance resides. After an ENI is created, you cannot change the VPC to which the ENI belongs.
    Note An ENI can be bound to only an instance that is in the same VPC as the ENI.
    vSwitchSelect a vSwitch. If you want to bind the created ENI to an instance, select a vSwitch that is in the same zone as the instance. After an ENI is created, you cannot change the vSwitch to which the ENI is connected.
    Note An ENI can be bound to only an instance that is in the same zone as the ENI. The instance and the ENI can be connected to different vSwitches.
    Primary Private IPOptional. Enter an IPv4 address as the primary private IP address of the ENI. The IPv4 address must be an idle IP address within the CIDR block of the selected vSwitch. If you do not specify an IPv4 address, an idle private IPv4 address is automatically assigned to the ENI after the ENI is created.
    Secondary Private IP AddressesOptional. Specify secondary private IPv4 addresses for the ENI.
    • Not set: No secondary private IPv4 addresses are assigned to the ENI.
    • Auto: Enter an integer in the range of 1 to 9 as the number of secondary private IPv4 addresses that you want to assign to the ENI. The system automatically assigns the specified number of idle IPv4 addresses from within the CIDR block of the selected vSwitch to the ENI.
    • Manual: Manually assign secondary private IPv4 addresses to the ENI. You can specify up to nine secondary private IPv4 addresses.
    Security GroupSelect security groups in the selected VPC. You can specify up to five security groups.
    Note Basic security groups and advanced security groups cannot be selected at the same time.
    DescriptionOptional. Enter a description that can help you manage the ENI.
    Resource GroupOptional. Select a resource group. Resources that are owned by multiple accounts and assigned to multiple projects can be added to resource groups for easy management. For more information about resource groups, see Resource groups.
    TagOptional. Select one or more tags to add to the ENI for easy search and management. For more information about tags, see Overview.
  6. Click Create.

Result

If Available is displayed in the Status column of the ENI on the Network Interfaces page, the ENI is created.

What to do next

After you separately create an ENI, you can bind the ENI to an instance. For more information, see Bind an ENI.