Your opinion helps us make a better documentation.
Was this page helpful?
How to manage routing
Reviewed on 11 June 2025 • Published on 09 April 2024
Routing is used to manage and control the flow of traffic within a VPC. It tells the VPC where to send traffic trying to get to a specific destination IP address. Notably, it allows traffic to be automatically routed between resources attached to different Private Networks within the VPC, as well as along user-created custom routes.
Read more about the VPC routing feature, including detailed explanations, usage considerations, limitations and best practices in our dedicated reference content.
To activate routing on a pre-existing VPC, follow these steps:
Click VPC in the Network section of the side menu. The list of your VPCs displays.
The Routing column allows you to see whether routing is already activated for a given VPC.
Click Activate next to the VPC on which you want to activate routing.
A message displays warning you that this enables the automatic routing of traffic between the Private Networks of your VPC, and that this action is irreversible.
Type ACTIVATE in the box, and click Activate Routing to confirm.
If you created your VPC before July 1st 2025, you must manually update its routing behavior in order to get the following capabilities:
Advertisement of custom routes across the entire VPC as standard.
Option to enable each Private Network in the VPC to receive default route advertisements not only from their locally attached Public Gateways, but from other Public Gateways (or default custom routes) attached to different Private Networks throughout the whole VPC.
Updating routing behavior is irreversible: once updated, you cannot revert. However, Network ACLs are configurable via the API to let you finely control and restrict routes within your VPC as necessary.
Follow the steps below to update the routing behavior for a given VPC:
Click VPC in the Network section of the Scaleway console side menu. The list of your VPCs displays.
Click Update in the Routing column of the VPC you want to update.
A three-step wizard displays, reiterating and reminding you of the changes to routing behavior.
On page 1 of the wizard, read the recap of the changes to routing behavior, and click Next.
On page 2 of the wizard, read the reminder of how these changes may impact your existing setup, and click Next.
On page 3 of the wizard, read the explanation that updating will entail no downtime, though changes to routes may take up to 30 minutes to fully propagate. Then type UPDATE in the box and click Confirm.
Your VPC’s routing behavior is updated, and you are directed to its routing table. Custom routes will now be scoped to the entire VPC, and you can use the Manage default routes button if you want to select Private Networks to receive default routes from throughout the VPC.
Your VPC’s route table can be found in its Routing tab. The route table shows all the existing routes for the VPC.
Click VPC in the Network section of the side menu. The list of your VPCs displays.
Click a VPC on which you have activated routing.
Click the Routing tab.
Routes are automatically generated and added to the route table when you:
Create a Private Network in the VPC (this generates a local subnet route, which allows the VPC to automatically route traffic between Private Networks), or
Attach a Public Gateway to a Private Network and set it to advertise a default route. This generates a default route to the internet.
Create a custom route
When your route table starts to populate, it will look something like this:
Two types of auto-generated routes exist for VPCs:
Local subnet route: Generated when you create a Private Network in a VPC. Allows traffic to be routed between different Private Networks in the VPC.
Default route to internet: Generated when you attach a Public Gateway to a Private Network in the VPC, and set it to advertise a default route. Allows traffic to be routed to addresses outside the VPC (i.e. the public internet) via the gateway.
Note
By default, Public Gateways remain scoped to the Private Network(s) to which they are attached. They do not, as standard, advertise the default route on other Private Networks in the VPC.
However, each Private Network can opt in to receive default route advertisements from across the entire VPC, rather than only from locally attached gateways. This allows them to find a route to the internet even if there is no Public Gateway or default custom route on their own Private Network. See our dedicated documentation for full details.
You cannot delete managed routes, as their lifecycle is fully managed by Scaleway. The route will be automatically deleted for you when you delete the Private Network or Public Gateway that it concerns.
If your VPC is using up-to-date routing behavior, you can enable each Private Network to receive default route advertisements not only from their locally attached Public Gateways, but also from throughout the VPC.
This means that the Private Network will receive route advertisements from:
All locally attached Public Gateway advertising a default route
All Public Gateways attached to other Private Networks in the VPC advertising default routes
All custom routes with a destination of 0.0.0.0/0.
Each Private Network must individually opt in to receive all these default routes. This can be done when creating a Private Network, or later, from each Private Network’s Settings tab, or from the VPC’s Routing tab.
Click VPC in the Network section of the Scaleway console side menu. A list of your VPCs displays.
Click the VPC containing the Private Network whose settings you want to update. A list of Private Networks in this VPC displays.
Click the Private Network whose settings you want to update, then click the Settings tab.
In the Receive all default routes panel, slide the toggle «Toogle Icon» to the on position.
This Private Network will now receive default route advertisements from throughout the VPC. It may take up to 30 minutes for routes to propagate to all resources. You can toggle this behavior off at any time.
Click VPC in the Network section of the Scaleway console side menu. A list of your VPCs displays.
Click the VPC whose default route management you want to update, then click the Routing tab.
Click the Manage default routes button.
A screen displays, showing a list of all the Private Networks in your VPC.
The Local default route column shows whether or not a default route is already advertised locally in the Private Network via an attached Public Gateway or custom route.
Click the checkbox next to each Private Network that you want to receive all default routes from throughout the VPC.
Click Apply scope when finished.
The selected Private Networks will now receive default route advertisements from throughout the VPC. It may take up to 30 minutes for routes to propagate to all resources. You can change default route scope settings at any time.
Scaleway VPC routing supports both IPv4 and IPv6 protocols. Managed routes to Private Networks are simultaneously generated for both IPV4 and IPV6, and both are added to the route table. Use the toggle above the route table to switch from the default view of IPV4 routes to a view of IPV6 routes.
Note that auto-generated managed routes to Public Gateways are only created in IPv4, since Public Gateways are not yet IPv6-compatible. Custom routes are only created for the IP type specified during the creation process.
Each VPC has auto-generated, managed routes to local subnets and Public Gateways, but you can also create your own custom routes.
For example, you may wish to route all traffic for a certain private IP range to an Instance hosting a manually configured VPN tunnel, allowing secure connection to a corresponding subnet at the other end of the tunnel.
Note
The scope of custom routes depends on whether your VPC is using up-to-date routing behavior:
Otherwise, custom routes are scoped only to the Private Network(s) of the “next hop” resource and not advertised to other Private Networks in the VPC. In this case, for the scenario mentioned above of routing traffic towards a VPN tunnel, the origin of the packet must be in the same Private Network as the resource hosting the VPN.
Follow the steps below to define a custom route:
Click VPC in the Network section of the side menu. The list of your VPCs displays.
Click a VPC on which you have activated routing.
Click the Routing tab.
Click Create route. The custom route creation wizard displays.
Enter a description for your route, e.g. “Route to hosted VPN”.
Optionally, enter one or more tags for your route. Tags help you filter and organize your list of routes.
Enter a destination for the route. The VPC will apply the route to all traffic with a matching destination IP. You must enter an IPv4 or IPv6 CIDR range with a subnet mask, e.g. 192.168.1.0/24. For a single IP address, use the /32 mask for IPv4.
Note
If your VPC has up-to-date routing behavior and you enter a destination of 0.0.0.0/0, this custom route is treated in the same way as a default route advertised by a Public Gateway.
Its route will be advertised locally on the ‘next hop’ resource’s Private Network.
Other Private Networks who have opted in to receive default routes from throughout the VPC will also receive this route.
Enter a next hop for the route. The VPC will route traffic for the destination IP to the resource designated as next hop.
Select the Private Network which the next hop resource is attached to.
Select a resource type: Instance, Public Gateway or Elastic Metal. Routing is not yet compatible with Managed Databases, nor with other types of Scaleway resources which are not integrated with VPC.
Select the name of the specific resource you want to route traffic to. The resource must be attached to a Private Network in this VPC.
Note
If you entered an IPv6 destination, resources not compatible with IPv6, e.g. Public Gateways, will not be available for selection as next hop.
Click Create route to finish.
The custom route is created and you are returned to the list of your VPC’s routes, where the newly-created route now displays.
If you delete a resource used as a next hop in a custom route, or detach it from the Private Network, the custom route will cease to function. A Not found! warning will display in the Next hop column for this route in the route table.
Only custom routes that you created yourself can be edited. It is not possible to edit auto-generated managed routes to Private Networks or Public Gateways.
Click VPC in the Network section of the side menu. The list of your VPCs displays.
Click a VPC on which you have activated routing.
Click the Routing tab.
Click the edit «Edit Icon» icon next to the custom route you want to edit.
Modify the details of the custom route as necessary. You can edit the name, tags, destination IP address range, and next hop.
Click Edit custom route to finish.
The custom route is updated, and you are returned to the list of your VPC’s routes.
Auto-generated managed routes to Private Networks or Public Gateways will be automatically deleted when you delete the Private Network or Public Gateway. However, custom routes that you create yourself are never automatically deleted, even when you delete a resource used as next hop. You must manually delete custom routes yourself when you no longer want them.
It is not possible to manually delete an auto-generated, managed route. Only custom routes can be deleted following the steps below.
Click VPC in the Network section of the side menu. The list of your VPCs displays.
Click a VPC on which you have activated routing.
Click the Routing tab.
Click the delete «Delete Icon» icon next to the custom route you want to delete. A pop-up displays asking you to confirm.
Click Delete route to confirm.
The custom route is deleted, and you are returned to the list of your VPC’s routes.
Read more about the VPC routing feature, including detailed explanations, usage considerations, limitations and best practices in our dedicated reference content.