Elastic IP
An independent public IP resource that decouples ECS and public IP resources, allowing you to flexibly manage public IP resources.
Overview
An Elastic IP (EIP) address is a public IP address resource that you can purchase and possess independently.
EIP can be dynamically bound to a VPC ECS instance without restarting the ECS instance. The ECS instance with a bounded EIP can communicate with the Internet.
Benefits
Independent Purchase and Ownership
You can purchase an EIP as an independent resource rather than bundled with other computing or storage resources.
Flexible Binding
You can bind an EIP to an ECS instance in any VPC to allow access via the Internet and release it whenever an Internet communication is not needed.
Configurable Network Capabilities
You may adjust the bandwidth of an EIP as needed. Bandwidth changes will take effect immediately.
Product Details
An EIP address is a NAT IP. It is located in the public network gateway of Alibaba Cloud and mapped to the private network interface card (NIC) of the bound ECS instance via NAT. Therefore, the ECS instance with a bounded EIP can communicate with the Internet without disclosing its EIP in the NIC.
Note: Currently, only ECS instances support the binding of an EIP address.
Features
The following table lists the differences between EIP addresses and ECS public IP addresses.
Comparison Items | EIP | ECS Public IP |
Possess independently | Yes | No |
Dynamic binding and unbinding to and from ECS instances | Yes | No |
Viewable on the NIC of ECS instances | No | Yes |
Pricing
Billing Method
EIP supports Pay-As-You-Go billing, which is a post-usage payment method. EIP fees are collected according to the actual network traffic and are billed hourly.
Billing Model
Total Cost
Total cost = instance retention fee + network traffic fee
Billing Items
Instance retention fee:
Cost = price * retention time, each EIP address is charged independently.
Price: Please refer to the price table.
Retention Time: Billed hourly, parts less than one hour are rounded up to one hour.
Network traffic fee:
Cost = price * billing traffic, each EIP address is charged independently.
Price: Please refer to the price table.
Charged Traffic: The cumulative value of the EIP address's outbound traffic in one-hour. Outbound traffic refers to data transferred from the Alibaba Cloud data center to the Internet, the reverse is inbound traffic.
Note: Modifying the bandwidth limitation does not affect the unit price. Although, we recommend that you set the bandwidth based on your actual needs to avoid generating excess billing traffic due to malicious access.
The following table lists the price of EIP addresses in different regions.
Region | Instance Retention Fee (USD/Hour) | Traffic Fee (USD/GB) |
China North 1 (Qingdao) | 0.003 | 0.113 |
China East 1 (Hangzhou), China East 2 (Shanghai), China North 2 (Beijing), China North 3 (Zhangjiakou), China South 1 (Shenzhen) | 0.003 | 0.125 |
Hong Kong | 0.009 | 0.156 |
Singapore | 0.006 | 0.117 |
Asia Pacific NE 1 (Japan) | 0.005 | 0.12 |
US East 1 (Virginia) | 0.005 | 0.078 |
US West 1 (Silicon Valley) | 0.005 | 0.078 |
Central Europe 1 (Frankfurt) | 0.006 | 0.07 |
Middle East 1 (Dubai) | 0.009 | 0.447 |
Asia Pacific SE 2 (Sydney) | 0.006 | 0.13 |
Note: The price may have changed, refer to the EIP address console for current prices.
Getting Started
Access Alibaba Cloud EIP Via the Management Console
The Alibaba Cloud Management Console provides a simple web-based user interface that allows you to access and configure EIP addresses.
From the console, you can create, modify and manage your EIP addresses.
For a step-by-step guide on how to apply for an Alibaba Cloud EIP address through the Management Console, please read the Quick Start Guide.
Documentation
To create your own Alibaba Cloud EIP addresses, please read the EIP Documentation for a detailed understanding of how EIP works and how to modify and manage your EIP addresses.
Alibaba Cloud VPC API Reference
You can use web-based Alibaba Cloud EIP APIs to programmatically create, manage, and achieve greater control of your resources placed within VPC.
Resources
The following resources offer detailed information regarding Alibaba Cloud EIP.
Developer Resources
Please see the links below for advanced features and Documentation. These resources are useful for developers wishing to integrate Alibaba Cloud EIP with their existing applications or to improve configurations.
FAQs
1. What is the difference between an EIP and a public IP of an ECS instance?
A public IP can be found on the private NIC of the ECS instance, while an EIP is a NAT IP that is mapped to the private NIC of the ECS instance. The EIP, therefore, cannot be found on the NIC of the ECS instance.
You cannot unbind a public IP from the ECS instance but can bind and unbind an EIP whenever the Internet communication is not needed.
2. Why cannot find the EIP on the private NIC?
The EIP is configured on the Internet gateway and mapped to the private NIC of the ECS instance, therefore, it cannot be found the private NIC.
3. How many EIPs can an account apply for?
A single account can apply for a maximum of 20 EIPs. You may submit a ticket if you wish to apply for more than this number.
4. Which cloud product instances can an EIP bind to?
Currently, only VPC ECS instances can be added to an EIP.
5. Can an EIP be added to a Classic ECS instance?
No, an EIP cannot be added to a Classic ECS instance.
6. How many EIPs can I add to a cloud product instance?
Only one EIP can be added to a single VPC ECS instance.
7. Why is the EIP not accessible?
It may be caused by the following reasons:
The EIP is not bound to any VPC ECS instances.
Check if the ECS instance is added to a security group. For example, if the ECS instance is added to the security group that denies access from port number 80, access to EIP from port number 80 will not be accessible.
Check to see if you have an insufficient account balance.
8. Why can I not bind an EIP to an ECS instance?
An EIP can only be bound to the ECS instance created in a VPC.
The regions of the EIP and ECS instance are not the same.
The status of the ECS instance is not running or stopped.
The ECS instance has been bound to an EIP.
The ECS instance has a system-allocated public IP.