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Associate Anycast EIPs with an ALB instance

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EIPs are region-specific, which can cause high latency for users outside the ALB instance's region. Anycast EIPs are announced from multiple access points across regions, routing users to the nearest one. Associate Anycast EIPs with an ALB instance to reduce latency and improve access quality.

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Anycast EIP overview

Anycast EIPs are shared across multiple global access points, improving Internet availability. They leverage stable BGP lines and the Alibaba Cloud global transmission network to optimize access quality.

An Anycast EIP is a standalone public IP address announced from all access points. After you associate it with an endpoint, traffic is automatically routed from the nearest access point to the endpoint through the optimal path, with no manual route configuration required.

Note

Use Anycast EIPs only for Internet-facing services. Accessing third-party services that use Anycast or similar technologies through Anycast EIPs may cause exceptions.

Advantages over EIPs:

  • Ease of use: Anycast EIPs work like standard EIPs. After association with an ALB instance, the instance serves traffic over the Internet with no additional configuration.

  • High security: Anycast EIPs use cloud-native security to protect Internet-facing services and backend servers from attacks.

  • Stability and reliability: Each Anycast EIP connects through multiple POPs. If one POP fails, traffic is automatically routed to another.

  • Reduced network jitter: Anycast EIPs route traffic through the nearest POP via high-quality BGP bandwidth and the Alibaba Cloud global network, minimizing jitter.

Limits

When you assign Anycast EIPs to an ALB instance while changing the ALB instance network type from internal-facing to Internet-facing, note the following limits:

  • Anycast EIP association with ALB is available in the following regions:

    Area

    Region

    China

    China (Hong Kong)

    Asia Pacific

    South Korea (Seoul), Japan (Tokyo), Singapore, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Indonesia (Jakarta), Philippines (Manila), and Thailand (Bangkok)

    Europe and Americas

    UK (London), US (Virginia), US (Silicon Valley), and Germany (Frankfurt)

  • When you first activate an Anycast EIP, Cloud Data Transfer (CDT) manages the billing of Internet and internal data transfer. Follow the on-screen instructions to activate CDT. For more information, see Purchase an Anycast EIP.

  • Internet-facing ALB instances are associated with EIPs by default. To use Anycast EIPs instead:

    1. Change the ALB instance from Internet-facing to internal-facing.

    2. Change the ALB instance from internal-facing to Internet-facing and assign Anycast EIPs to the ALB instance.

  • ALB instances associated with Anycast EIPs cannot use Internet Shared Bandwidth. The default maximum bandwidth of an Anycast EIP is 1,000 Mbit/s.

  • Anycast EIPs can only be associated with IPv4 addresses of dual-stack ALB instances, not IPv6 addresses.

  • When an Anycast EIP is associated with an ALB or NLB instance, the Anycast EIP is available in only one region. For more information, see Limits.

Prerequisites

Associate Anycast EIPs with an ALB instance

Internal-facing ALB instance

To associate Anycast EIPs with an internal-facing ALB instance, complete the following steps on the ALB instance:

  1. Log on to the ALB console.

  2. In the top navigation bar, select the region of the ALB instance.

  3. On the Instances page, find the internal-facing ALB instance that you want to manage and click the instance ID.

  4. On the Instance Details tab, find Network Type in the Basic Information section, and click Change Network Type on the right side of the private IPv4 address.

  5. In the Change Network Type dialog box, set IP Type to Anycast EIP, select Purchase Anycast EIP or specify an existing Anycast EIP from the Assign EIP drop-down list, and then click OK.

    Note

    • Assign Anycast EIPs to all zones in the list.

    • If you select Purchase Anycast EIP:

      • When you change an ALB instance to internal-facing or release it, the associated Anycast EIPs are automatically disassociated and released.

      • View Anycast EIP parameters in the Anycast EIP console.

  6. If a Note message appears for first-time Anycast EIP activation, confirm the information, select the Terms of Service, and click Activate Now to activate CDT.

    CDT manages the billing of Internet and internal data transfer for Anycast EIPs. Activate CDT by following the on-screen instructions when you purchase an Anycast EIP.

Internet-facing ALB instance

If your Internet-facing ALB instance uses EIPs and you want to use Anycast EIPs instead, perform the following operations on the ALB instance:

Note

By default, new Internet-facing ALB instances use EIPs for Internet access.

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Step 1: Change the Internet-facing ALB instance to internal-facing

  1. On the Instances page, find the Internet-facing ALB instance, and then click the instance ID.

  2. On the Instance Details tab, find Network Type in the Basic Information section, and click Change Network Type on the right side of the public IPv4 address.

  3. In the Change Network Type dialog box, confirm the impacts of the change and click OK.

    The change takes about 1 minute. When Network Type on the Instance Details tab shows Private, the change is complete.

Step 2: Change to Internet-facing and associate Anycast EIPs

  1. On the Instances page, find the internal-facing ALB instance that you want to manage and click the instance ID.

  2. On the Instance Details tab, find Network Type in the Basic Information section, and click Change Network Type on the right side of the private IPv4 address.

  3. In the Change Network Type dialog box, set IP Type to Anycast EIP, select Purchase Anycast EIP or specify an existing Anycast EIP from the Assign EIP drop-down list, and then click OK.

    Note

    • Assign Anycast EIPs to all zones in the list.

    • If you select Purchase Anycast EIP:

      • When you change an ALB instance to internal-facing or release it, the associated Anycast EIPs are automatically disassociated and released.

      • View Anycast EIP parameters in the Anycast EIP console.

  4. If a Note message appears for first-time Anycast EIP activation, confirm the information, select the Terms of Service, and click Activate Now to activate CDT.

    CDT manages the billing of Internet and internal data transfer for Anycast EIPs. Activate CDT by following the on-screen instructions when you purchase an Anycast EIP.

Billing impact

Associating Anycast EIPs with an ALB instance incurs Anycast EIP charges.

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Billable item

Billing rule

References

Instance fee

Instance fee = Instance unit price (USD per hour) × Usage duration (hours)

Instance fee

LCU fee

LCU fee = max{Number of LCUs consumed by new connections, Number of LCUs consumed by concurrent connections, Number of LCUs consumed by processed bytes, Number of LCUs consumed by rule evaluations} × Duration of usage (hours)

LCU fee

Internet data transfer fee

Internet data transfer fees apply only to Internet-facing ALB instances, not internal-facing ALB instances. Internet-facing ALB instances use EIPs or Anycast EIPs for Internet access.

  • New ALB instances use EIPs by default and incur EIP instance and data transfer fees. For more information, see Pay-as-you-go.

  • Anycast EIPs associated with an ALB instance incur configuration fees, Internet data transfer fees, and internal data transfer fees. Billing.

Web Application Firewall (WAF) protection fee (optional)

Enabling WAF protection on an ALB instance incurs WAF fees. WAF 3.0 supports Subscription and Pay-as-you-go billing. If you do not have a WAF instance, you can purchase a WAF-enabled ALB instance to activate pay-as-you-go WAF 3.0.

References

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