How to move an Instance to routed flexible IPs

Reviewed on 12 March 2024 • Published on 11 October 2023

During deployment, each Instance gets a NAT IP from its hosting node, besides its public IP, which is routed to the Instance through a carrier-grade NAT solution. However, if the underlying hypervisor changes, the NAT IP changes. This can happen when you restart your Instance. The NAT IP lets Instances communicate via an underlying internal network, without public IPs.

Routing a public IP directly to an Instance bypasses NAT IPs, sending traffic to its routed flexible IP. The benefit is the IP stays consistent even if the Instance is restarted or moved. Routed IPs also let you assign multiple flexible IPv4s and IPv6s to an Instance, as both IPv4 and IPv6 are supported.

Using a routed flexible IP is recommended for all compatible Instance types, as it allows precise control over network configurations. It simplifies troubleshooting, ensures compatibility with more applications, and allows for enhanced security monitoring.

Important

The routed IP feature is incompatible with legacy Instance types using the bootscript feature.
Ensure no static network configuration is in use for your public network interface (usually ens2 or eth0)
Ensure that you are not using the internal private IP of the Instance for internal communications. Instead, attach your Instances to a VPC.
You must update the scaleway-ecosystem and cloud-init packages before starting transition.

Before you start

To complete the actions presented below, you must have:

A Scaleway account logged into the console
An Instance that has not been moved to routed IPs

Updating the required packages

To update the scaleway-ecosystem and cloud-init packages, log into your Instance using SSH and run the following command.

For Ubuntu and Debian Instances, you can use the following command:

apt upgrade scaleway-ecosystem cloud-init -y

For CentOS and Fedora Instances, you can use the following command:

dnf update scaleway-ecosystem cloud-init -y

Moving the Instance to routed IPs

Select Instances from the Compute category in the sidebar menu. This will show a list of your Instances. Those eligible to transition to routed IPs are identified with an exclamation mark icon.
Click Move IP next to the Instance you wish to move to routed flexible IPs. A pop-up displays.
Tip
Alternatively, you can initiate the transition from your Instance’s overview page by clicking the Move IP button.
Type MIGRATE to confirm your intent and click Move to routed IP. This will initiate the transition process, and your Instance will undergo a reboot.
Note
Post-transition, your Instance will retain its public IP address, but its NAT IP will be removed.

After the transition finishes, the notification icon will no longer be visible in your Instances list.

Tip

For detailed guidance on using the routed flexible IP feature via the Scaleway API or CLI tool, refer to our dedicated documentation Routing public IPs to Instances using the Scaleway API.