Insights
Insights
Connectivity is a crucial part of cloud computing and UpCloud has a strong focus on reliable networking. We have built our own backbone network between our data centres to secure connectivity with low latency and high throughput. Our users can enjoy direct connectivity between the data centres, as well as local peering and redundancy through our participation in many Internet Exchange Points.
UpCloud offers 3 different types of networks, public internet access over IPv4 and IPv6, user-customisable SDN Private Networks, and the preconfigured private Utility network.
We also provide our users with a number of networking features such as floating IP addresses, reverse DNS, and firewall services.
The public network provides Cloud Servers with connectivity that allows access to the open Internet. Every Cloud Server is configured with 1 IPv4 address and 1 IPv6 address by default. Public network access is optional and can be disabled entirely on a Cloud Server basis by detaching the public network interfaces.
IPv4 is still the more commonly used method for addressing internet resources. Each Cloud Server can have 0-5 IPv4 addresses.
IPv6 is the newer standard which provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic across the Internet. Each Cloud Server can have 0-5 IPv6 addresses.
Public network interfaces provide 1 Gbit/s link speeds.
During the free trial, users are limited to 1 public IPv4 and 1 IPv6 address and the network speed is restricted to 100 Mbit/s.
Cloud Servers utilising predefined plans include 1 public IPv4 address in their monthly price. Any additional addresses are priced at €3.15 per month.
IPv6 addresses are free of charge but the network transfer is billed according to the pricing below.
Network transfer via public network interfaces is priced as follows:
Network Transfer Pool statistics can be viewed at the user’s UpCloud Control Panel.
Network Transfer Pool combines all transfer quotas included in all of the user’s UpCloud products and services into a single account-wide transfer pool. This includes all transfer quotas across all data centres covering all current Cloud Servers as well as any future products that contain quotas for outgoing transfer.
Network Transfer Pool enables users to take full advantage of all transfer quotas regardless of which services generate the network transfer. The network transfer is not limited to an hourly rate. Users can make full use of their transfer quota right after deployment without incurring excess charges as long as the service exists for at least 28 days during the calendar month.
How Network Transfer Pool is defined:
How Network Transfer Pool is used:
Network Transfer Pool allows greater flexibility in cloud service configurations by enabling users to benefit from the total transfer quotas from all Cloud Servers or services. For example, transfer quotas from a database and other backend servers can be utilised by the frontend or load balancer without any additional cost or setup.
Products that contribute and are eligible to utilise the Network Transfer Pool:
| UpCloud products | Contributes | Utilises |
|---|---|---|
| General Purpose plan | Yes, according to plan quota | Yes |
| High CPU plan | Yes, according to plan quota | Yes |
| High Memory plan | Yes, according to plan quota | Yes |
| Flexible plan | No | Yes |
| Private Cloud | No | No |
| Object Storage | Yes, according to plan quota | Yes |
| Managed Databases | No | No |
| Managed Load Balancer | No | Yes |
| NAT Gateway | No | Yes |
The Network Transfer Pool usage is logged for billing purposes and can be viewed at the user’s UpCloud Control Panel or via the UpCloud API.
Software-defined networking, or SDN for short, is a technological approach to network management that enables dynamic, programmatically created network configurations. SDN decouples the network configuration from the physical infrastructure much like cloud computing has done for traditional server hosting.
Using SDN private networks, users are able to create and configure custom private networks on demand.
SDN private networks are created within a specific data centre and allow connecting an unlimited number of cloud servers within that data centre.
SDN private network interfaces provide up to 10 Gbit/s link speeds. The network throughput between Cloud Servers may vary.
Private networks are complimentary with unlimited attached Cloud Servers. Data transfer within SDN private networks is free of charge.
Our Utility network is an automatically configured account-wide secure connection between all Cloud Servers under one user account. All user’s cloud servers are connected to the utility network by default but can be disconnected by detaching the network interface belonging to the Utility network.
The Utility network connects all data centres globally and is useful for quick communication between Cloud Servers for example during initial deployment and bootstrapping. For production implementations, we recommend using SDN private networks.
Utility network interfaces provide 1 Gbit/s link speeds.
Utility network is provided free of charge to all Cloud Servers and data transfer within the networks is free of charge.
We offer an optional Layer 3 firewall that is positioned just before the network interface connecting the Cloud Servers to the internet. The firewall rules can be applied to the Public and Utility network traffic, SDN private networks are excluded.
The firewall is stateless and does not keep track of connections. Users are required to configure rules to allow both incoming and outgoing traffic.
The firewall is configured per-server basis and included in every monthly plan price.
The outbound SMTP port 25 is closed by default on all new accounts to prevent accidental open relays and misuse. The blocked port shows up on the UpCloud firewall of the Cloud Server at the user’s control panel and cannot be changed directly.
Users can request the port to be unlocked by contacting our support team.
Users will be required to provide proof of identity or payment method for verification and explain the use case and why the outbound port 25 is needed. This is done to ensure the responsible use of SMTP and build trust in our network for email delivery.
During the free trial, inbound and outbound connections are limited to standard ports commonly used on web servers. These limitations are removed when the user upgrades to full access.
Accepted connections:
| Inbound port number | Outbound port number |
|---|---|
| 22 | |
| 53 | |
| 80 | 80 |
| 443 | 443 |
| 3389 | |
| 8080 | |
| 123 | 123 |
| 33434 – 33534 | 33434 – 33534 |
Floating IPs are special IPv4 addresses that can be transferred from one Cloud Server to another at a moment’s notice without the need to restart the servers. They are useful for failover services on mission-critical functions to ensure high availability.
The Floating IP can be transferred between any cloud Servers within the same data centre but requires prior configuration at the operating system level which needs to be done manually by the user.
The failover between servers can be done manually at the UpCloud Control Panel or automated using API commands.
Floating IPs are only available using IPv4 in the public network. Floating IPs cannot be configured using IPv6 or in the Utility or SDN private networks.
Floating IPs are priced at €3.15 per month.
NAT Gateway service provides outbound internet access to servers without dedicated public IP addresses. It can be used for instance to connect to third-party services and to fetch software upgrades.
NAT Gateway operates in conjunction with an SDN Router, which is used to connect one or multiple SDN Private Networks. All Cloud Servers connected to those SDN Private Networks can then access the internet using the NAT Gateway.
NAT Gateway is a managed service, with software upgrades provided by UpCloud.
NAT Gateway is priced at €25 per month.
Outbound transfer from the NAT Gateway utilises the Network Transfer Pool, fully benefiting from all network transfer capacity available.
UpCloud network includes a Domain Name Service resolver at each location that can be reached at the following IP addresses.
The UpCloud DNS resolver IPv4 addresses are:
Cloud servers with a public IPv6 address can also use IPv6 with the following servers:
We do not currently offer a user-configurable authoritative DNS service for hosting your own domain names.
UpCloud users can set a Reverse DNS, or PTR, record on each of their IP addresses. Querying an rDNS is a Domain Name System (DNS) technique to determine the hostname associated with an IP address.
Each IP address on UpCloud has a default rDNS set upon creation which can be changed at the UpCloud Control Panel or via the UpCloud API free of charge.