Floating IPs Overview

Floating IP addresses are re-routable IP addresses that can be dynamically routed to the IP address (Anchor IP address) of an underlying hosting service (e.g. a Dedicated Server, Dedicated Rack or Colocation service), creating flexibility between the externally visible IP addresses and the internal hosting services.

For example:

• A customer that has server A with IP address 1.1.1.1 and a server B with IP address 2.2.2.2 (e.g. in 2 different racks/halls in the same DC).
• The customer will be able to order a Floating IP (e.g. 3.3.3.3) and re-route it to one of the servers at a time through an interface in the Customer Portal or an API call.
• This makes it possible to keep an application or website online while one of the servers is down for maintenance by simply rerouting the IP of the website/application (3.3.3.3) to the other server.

Use cases

At least 2 hosting services need to be deployed to take advantage of a Floating IP address. Data sync can be achieved through Private Networking.

• Unplanned downtime

In case server A becomes unavailable due to unexpected downtime, you can redirect the Floating IP address to point to the IP address of server B. The traffic will flow to server B, and within seconds, the application will be online.

• Maintenance / Upgrade (Planned downtime)

In case maintenance or an upgrade needs to be performed. Before the maintenance window, you can direct the Floating IP address to the IP address of server B. The traffic will flow to server B, and maintenance work can be performed on server A without downtime to the application.

When maintenance work is finished in server A, you can direct the Floating IP back to server A, and you can proceed with the work in server B.

• Relocation of servers

In case the server needs to be relocated to another rack, usually a change of the main IP address is also needed. With a Floating IP address, the only change is to route it to a new Anchor IP address.

Ordering Floating IP addresses

Floating IP addresses can be ordered:

• Through our Customer Portal: Preferred, as there is an automated process that takes care of delivering a Floating IP address within minutes.
• Through our Sales department.

The minimum amount of Floating IP addresses is 1 (/32).

The maximum amount of Floating IP addresses is 16 IPs (/28) that can be ordered via our Customer Portal.
For specific use-cases, we allow up to 256 (/24 subnet); however, please contact our Sales department.

Floating IP addresses are available as CIDR blocks.

Using Floating IPs

Please follow the instructions here.

Data Center availability

Product availability

Floating IP addresses are available for Dedicated Servers and Colocation.

They are not available for Cloud services in this release.

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