You can create peering connections to connect virtual private clouds (VPCs) that are in the same or different regions and belong to the same or different Alibaba Cloud accounts. This topic describes the terms, billing, and limits of VPC peering connections.
Features and supported regions
Area | Supported region |
Asia Pacific | China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Nanjing - Local Region), China (Qingdao), China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), China (Ulanqab), China (Shenzhen), China (Heyuan), China (Guangzhou), China (Chengdu), China (Hong Kong), China (Wuhan - Local Region), China (Fuzhou - Local Region), Japan (Tokyo), South Korea (Seoul), Singapore, Australia (Sydney) Closing Down, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Indonesia (Jakarta), Philippines (Manila), and Thailand (Bangkok) |
Europe & Americas | Germany (Frankfurt), UK (London), US (Silicon Valley), and US (Virginia) |
Middle East | UAE (Dubai) and SAU (Riyadh - Partner Region) Important The SAU (Riyadh - Partner Region) region is operated by a partner. |
Feature overview
A VPC peering connection is a network connection that connects two VPCs. VPC peeing connections support IPv4 and IPv6. You can use VPC peering connections to enable communication between IPv4 and IPv6 traffic. This enables two VPCs to communicate with each other through private networks.
Requester and accepter
When you create a VPC peering connection, one VPC serves as the requester and the other VPC serves as the accepter. The VPC that sends requests is the requester and the VPC that receives requests is the accepter. The requester and the accepter are only used to control how a peering connection is established. After a VPC peering connection is established, both the requester and the accepter can send and receive data.
For a same-account VPC peering connection, the system automatically accepts the connection request from the requester and establishes a connection. The accepter does not need to accept the connection request.
For a cross-account VPC peering connection, the accepter can accept or reject the connection request. The VPC peering connection is activated only when the accepter accepts the connection request.
The requester and the accepter can belong to the same region or different regions.
Status of a VPC peering connection
To establish a VPC peering connection, the requester sends a connection request to the accepter. After the accepter accepts the request, the VPC peering connection is established.
If the requester VPC and the accepter VPC belong to the same Alibaba Cloud account, the connection request is automatically initiated and accepted. The peering connection is activated after it is established.
The following table describes the status of a VPC peering connection in different stages.
Status | Description |
Creating | The status after the requester sends a connection request. |
Peer Accepting | The status when the connection is waiting to be accepted by the accepter. |
Updating | The status after the accepter accepts the connection request. |
Activated | The status after the VPC peering connection is activated. |
Rejected | The status after the accepter rejects the connection request. |
Expired | The status after the connection request remains pending for more than seven days. |
Deleting | The status when the VPC peering connection is being deleted. |
Deleted | The status after the VPC peering connection is deleted. |
Billing and pricing
VPC peering connections are free of charge if the requester and accepter are in the same region. Otherwise, you are charged data transfer fees for outbound data transfer across regions. The fees are managed by Cloud Data Transfer (CDT). For more information, see Billing overview.
As shown in the preceding figure, a peering connection is established between VPC1 and VPC2, which are in different regions. You are charged for outbound data transfer. Therefore, the Alibaba Cloud account of VPC1 is charged for data transfer from VPC1 to the peer, and the Alibaba Cloud account of VPC2 is charged for data transfer from VPC2 to the peer.
Billing examples for peer connections across regions and accounts
Customer 1 created VPC1 in the China (Hohhot) region. Customer 2 created VPC2 in the China (Guangzhou) region. A peering connection is established between VPC1 and VPC2. 200 GB of data is transmitted from VPC1 through the peering connection. 100 GB of data is transmitted from VPC2 through the peering connection. The unit price of inter-region data transfer between China (Hohhot) and China (Guangzhou) is CNY 0.6 per GB. For more information, see Inter-region data transfers. Data transfer fees:
Customer 1: CNY 0.6/GB × 200 GB = CNY 120
Customer 2: CNY 0.6/GB × 100 GB = CNY 60
Scenarios
Same-account and intra-region VPC peering connections
Same-account and inter-region VPC peering connections
Cross-account and intra-region VPC peering connections
Cross-account and inter-region VPC peering connections
Limits and quotas
Usage notes
VPC peering connections do not support transit routing. After you create a VPC peering connection, you can configure routes on the requester and accepter to enable communication between the requester and accepter.
Assume that three VPCs named VPC1, VPC2, and VPC3 are created. A VPC peering connection is established between VPC1 and VPC2. A VPC peering connection is also established between VPC2 and VPC3. However, VPC2 cannot function as the transit router between VPC1 and VPC2. You can create a VPC peering connection between VPC1 and VPC3, and configure routes to enable communication between VPC1 and VPC3.
Before you use VPC peering connections to connect VPCs, make sure that the CIDR blocks to be connected do not overlap with each other.
You cannot create VPC peering connections for shared VPCs.
Quotas
Name/ID | Description | Default value | Adjustable |
vpc_quota_cross_region_peer_num_per_vpc | Maximum number of inter-region VPC peering connections supported by each VPC | 20 | You can increase the quota by performing the following operations:
|
vpc_quota_intra_region_peer_num_per_vpc | Maximum number of intra-region VPC peering connections supported by each VPC | 10 | |
vpc_quota_peer_num | Maximum number of VPC peering connections supported by each Alibaba Cloud account in each region | 20 | |
vpc_quota_peer_cross_border_bandwidth | Maximum bandwidth supported by cross-border connections | 1024 Mbps | |
vpc_quota_peer_cross_region_bandwidth | Maximum bandwidth supported by inter-region connections | 1024 Mbps | |
N/A | Default maximum bandwidth for intra-region connections | -1 Mbit/s, which indicates unlimited bandwidth | No |