How to move an Instance to routed flexible IPs

Reviewed on 14 November 2024 • Published on 11 October 2023

Prior to April 2024, all Instances got a NAT IP from their hosting node, which was routed to the Instance through a carrier-grade NAT solution. This was in addition to the public (flexible) IP. The NAT IP let Instances communicate via an underlying internal network, without public IPs. However, if the underlying hypervisor changed, the NAT IP changed also. This could happen when you restarted your Instance.

Since October 2024 it is no no longer possible to create Instances with NAT IPs. Instead, Instances’ public IPs are routed 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.

In addition to the benefits explained above, routed IPs allow precise control over network configurations, simplify troubleshooting, ensure compatibility with more applications, and allow for enhanced security monitoring. We recommend that users with Instances still using NAT IPs move them to routed IPs by following the instructions below.

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

Tip

To ensure optimal compatibility and security, especially when working with flexible IPs, we recommend to upgrade your Instance to OS versions that have not reached their end of life.

Before proceeding with the migration, consider the following guidelines regarding scaleway-ecosystem and cloud-init:

scaleway-ecosystem and cloud-init: These packages are not strictly required for routed IPs. However, if they are installed, it is recommended to update them to the latest version.
Package availability on older Instances:
- scaleway-ecosystem: Older Instances may not have this package installed. In such cases, no action is required.
- cloud-init: This package is commonly pre-installed on Instances due to its inclusion in upstream cloud images. For older Instances, a legacy version of cloud-init may not impact IPv4 functionality, but IPv6 functionality could be inconsistent with outdated versions.

To check if scaleway-ecosystem and cloud-init are installed and to update them if needed, log into your Instance using SSH and run the following commands:

For Ubuntu and Debian Instances:

dpkg-query -W scaleway-ecosystem || echo "scaleway-ecosystem is not installed"
apt upgrade scaleway-ecosystem cloud-init -y

For CentOS and Fedora Instances:

rpm -q scaleway-ecosystem || echo "scaleway-ecosystem is not installed"
dnf update scaleway-ecosystem cloud-init -y

If scaleway-ecosystem is not installed, no additional steps are needed for this package. However, it is still recommended to ensure that cloud-init is up-to-date to support IPv6 functionality.

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.

IPv6 support

Routed IPs provide flexible IPv6 support. This means you can now assign an IPv6 address that will remain the same wherever the Instance is located. Before the advent of routed IPs, IPv6 addresses were assigned per node location, thus whenever an Instance was relocated, its IPv6 address was changed. Note that for the best experience with IPv6, your Instance must be supported (we do not provide support for EOL Operating Systems). For IPv6 only, you need cloud-init version 23.2 or later and scaleway-ecosystem version 0.6 or later.