Global Accelerator (GA) enables IPv6 clients to access your IPv4 services through an IPv6 translation service. Set the IP protocol of the accelerated IP address to IPv6 — no changes to your existing infrastructure are required.
Limitations
Only Global Accelerator Global Accelerator instances support the IPv6 translation service.
For a list of acceleration regions that support IPv6 client access, see Regions that support IPv6 and dual-stack.
Scenario
Enterprises often have IT systems deployed in on-premises data centers on IPv4-only networks. As business grows, they need to serve IPv6 clients, but migrating existing systems to support IPv6 is complex and time-consuming. Global Accelerator provides an IPv6 translation service that enables IPv6 support without modifying your existing IT systems. Requests from IPv6 clients are translated by GA and forwarded to your backend IPv4 servers. Enterprises with cloud-deployed systems can also useGlobal Accelerator to enable IPv6 client access.
In this scenario, a company headquartered in US (Silicon Valley) has a self-managed server running an IPv4 web service. Its branch office in China (Hong Kong) uses only IPv6 clients. The company needs these IPv6 clients in China (Hong Kong) to access the IPv4 web service in US (Silicon Valley), while reducing latency, jitter, and packet loss from unstable cross-border networks.
Use Global Accelerator to process access requests from IPv6 clients in China (Hong Kong). Traffic from the IPv6 clients to the servers in US (Silicon Valley) enters the Alibaba Cloud acceleration network at a nearby access point in China (Hong Kong) via an accelerated IP address. GA then translates the IPv6 requests into IPv4 requests and routes them to the endpoints through intelligent routing.
Global Accelerator also supports IPv6 translation for same-region access.
Step 1: Configure basic information
Log on to the Global Accelerator console.
On the Instances page, click Create Standard Pay-as-you-go Instance.
In the Basic Instance Configuration step, configure the parameters based on the following table and click Next.
Parameter
Description
GA Instance Name
Enter a name for the GA instance.
Instance Billing Method
Pay-As-You-Go is selected by default.
You are charged instance fees, CU fees, and data transfer fees for pay-as-you-go Global Accelerator instances.
Resource Group
Select the resource group to which the standard instance belongs.
The resource group must be created by the current Alibaba Cloud account in Resource Management. For more information, see Create a resource group.
Step 2: Configure an acceleration region
Configure an Global Accelerator for the GA instance. This specifies the region where users requiring accelerated access to backend services are located and allocates bandwidth to that region.
On the Configure acceleration areas wizard page, configure the acceleration region and then click Next.
Parameter | Description |
Acceleration Area | From the drop-down list, select the regions to accelerate, and then click Add To List. In this example, the China (Hong Kong) region is selected from the Asia Pacific area. If the acceleration region is in the Chinese mainland, you must apply for an ICP filing for the domain name. |
Assign Bandwidth | |
Maximum Bandwidth | Specify the maximum bandwidth for the acceleration region. Each acceleration region supports a bandwidth range of 2 to 10,000 Mbit/s. The maximum bandwidth is used for bandwidth throttling. The data transfer fees are managed by CDT. In this example, the default value 200 Mbit/s is used. Important If you specify a small value for the maximum bandwidth, throttling may occur and packets may be dropped. Specify a maximum bandwidth based on your business requirements. |
IP Protocol | Select the IP protocol used to access the Global Accelerator service. In this example, select IPv6. |
ISP Line Type | Select the ISP line type used to access the Global Accelerator service. In this example, select BGP (Multi-ISP). |
Step 3: Configure a listener
A listener checks for and processes inbound connection requests based on the port and protocol you specify. Each listener is associated with one or more endpoint groups. After you associate an endpoint group with a listener, GA routes traffic to the optimal endpoint within that group.
In the Configure Listeners step, configure a listener and click Next.
The following table describes only the parameters that are relevant to this topic. Use the default values for other parameters. For more information, see Add and manage intelligent routing listeners.
Parameter | Description |
Listener Name | Enter a name for the listener. |
Routing Type | Select a routing type. In this example, Intelligent Routing is selected. |
Protocol | Select a protocol for the listener. In this example, select HTTP. |
Port | Specify the listener port that is used to receive and forward requests to endpoints. The port number must be in the range of 1 to 65499. In this example, port 80 is used. |
Client Affinity | Specify whether to enable client affinity. If client affinity is enabled, requests from the same client are forwarded to the same endpoint when the client connects to a stateful application. In this example, Source IP is selected. |
Custom HTTP Headers | Select the HTTP headers that you want to add. In this example, the default settings are used. |
Step 4: Configure endpoint groups and endpoints
On the Configure an Endpoint Group wizard page, configure an endpoint group and endpoints, and then click Next.
This section describes only the parameters that are relevant to this scenario. For more information about endpoint parameters, see Add and manage endpoint groups for intelligent routing listeners.
Parameter
Description
Region
Select the region where the endpoint group is deployed.
In this example, select US (Silicon Valley).
Endpoint Configuration
An endpoint is the destination that receives client requests. Configure the endpoint as follows:
Backend Service Type: Select Custom Public IP.
Backend Service: Enter the public IP address of the backend IPv4 web service.
Weight: Enter the weight of the endpoint. The valid range is 0 to 255. GA routes traffic to endpoints based on the specified weights. This example uses the default value of 255.
WarningIf the weight of an endpoint is set to 0, Global Accelerator stops distributing traffic to that endpoint. Proceed with caution.
Preserve Client IP
The preserve client IP feature is enabled by default to allow backend services to retrieve client source IP addresses. An HTTP listener retrieves client source IP addresses from the
x-forwarded-forheader. For more information, see Preserve client IP addresses.Backend Service Protocol
Select the protocol used by the backend server.
The default is HTTP.
Port Mapping
If the listening port is different from the service port of your endpoint, you must configure port mapping.
Listener Port: You can only enter the current listening port.
Endpoint Port: The port on which the endpoint provides service.
If the listening port and the endpoint service port are the same, you do not need to configure port mapping. Global Accelerator automatically forwards requests to the corresponding service port on the endpoint.
This example does not require port mapping.
Traffic Distribution Ratio
Set the traffic distribution ratio for this endpoint group.
Valid values: 0 to 100.
This example uses the default value of 100%.
Health Check
Enable or disable the health check feature.
If enabled, this feature uses health checks to determine the health of endpoints. For more information, see Enable and manage health checks.
This example uses the default setting, which is disabled.
On the Configuration Review page, review the settings and click Submit. Creating a GA instance takes about 3 to 5 minutes.
Step 5: Configure DNS
Configure DNS to forward requests for the backend IPv4 service to Global Accelerator. You can choose one of the following methods:
Add a CNAME record to map the accelerated domain name to the CNAME assigned to the Global Accelerator instance.
Add an AAAA record to map the accelerated domain name to the IPv6 accelerated IP address assigned to the Global Accelerator instance.
On the Alibaba Cloud DNS console, find the target domain name. In the Actions column, click Settings.
If your domain name is not registered with Alibaba Cloud, you must add it to the Alibaba Cloud DNS console before you can configure DNS settings.
On the Resolve Settings page, click Add Record. Configure the record by using one of the following methods, and then click OK.
CNAME record
Parameter
Description
Record Type
Select CNAME.
A CNAME record maps a domain name to another domain name.
Hostname
Enter the prefix of the accelerated domain name.
If your accelerated domain name is
www.aliyun.com, set the hostname towww.If your accelerated domain name is
aliyun.com, set the hostname to@.If your accelerated domain name is
*.aliyun.com, set the hostname to*.If your accelerated domain name is
mail.aliyun.com, set the hostname tomail.
DNS Request Source
Keep the default value.
TTL
The time to live (TTL) is how long a DNS record is cached on a DNS server. A shorter TTL allows record modifications to take effect faster.
This example uses the default value of 10 minutes.
Record Value
Enter the CNAME assigned to the Global Accelerator instance.
You can find the CNAME on the Instances page of the GA console.
AAAA record
Parameter
Description
Record Type
Select AAAA.
An AAAA record maps a domain name to an IPv6 address.
Hostname
Enter the prefix of the accelerated domain name.
If your accelerated domain name is
www.aliyun.com, set the hostname towww.If your accelerated domain name is
aliyun.com, set the hostname to@.If your accelerated domain name is
*.aliyun.com, set the hostname to*.If your accelerated domain name is
mail.aliyun.com, set the hostname tomail.
DNS Request Source
Keep the default value.
TTL
The time to live (TTL) is how long a DNS record is cached on a DNS server. A shorter TTL allows record modifications to take effect faster.
This example uses the default value of 10 minutes.
Record Value
Enter the IPv6 accelerated IP address assigned to the Global Accelerator instance.
Step 6: Test connectivity
This example uses a CNAME record and an Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 client for testing. Commands may vary by operating system.
In the acceleration region (China (Hong Kong) in this example), open a command-line window on an IPv6 client.
Run the following command to verify that the CNAME record has taken effect.
ping -6 <accelerated domain name>If the resolved IP address matches the IPv6 accelerated IP address assigned to the Global Accelerator instance, the CNAME record has taken effect.
[root@xxx-IPv6 ~]# ping -6 www.xxx.xxx.fun PING www.xxx.xxx.fun(240b:xxx:xxx:xxx:fc1 (240b:xxx:xxx:xxx:c1)) 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 240b:xxx:xxx:xxx:fc1 (240b:xxx:xxx:xxx:c1): icmp_seq=1 ttl=101 time=2.42 ms 64 bytes from 240b:xxx:xxx:xxx:fc1 (240b:xxx:xxx:xxx:c1): icmp_seq=2 ttl=101 time=2.43 ms 64 bytes from 240b:xxx:xxx:xxx:fc1 (240b:xxx:xxx:xxx:c1): icmp_seq=3 ttl=101 time=2.42 ms ^C --- www.xxx.xxx.fun ping statistics --- 3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2003ms rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 2.420/2.423/2.428/0.003 msRun the following command to test whether the IPv6 client can access the IPv4 service.
curl -6 -g http://[<GA accelerated IP address>]A successful response indicates that the IPv6 client can access the IPv4 service deployed in the US (Silicon Valley) region.
[root@xxx-IPv6 ~]# curl -6 -g http://[240b:xxx:xxx:xxx:xxx:xxx:c1] Hello World,ECS01 [root@xxx IPv6 ~]#