Help Center/ Virtual Private Cloud/ User Guide/ Virtual IP Address/ Binding a Virtual IP Address to an Instance or EIP

Updated on 2025-10-15 GMT+08:00

View PDF

Binding a Virtual IP Address to an Instance or EIP

Scenarios

You can bind a virtual IP address to an instance or EIP. An instance can be a cloud server, a network interface, or a Layer 2 connection.

Bind a virtual IP address to an instance. You can:
- Bind one or more virtual IP addresses to an instance.
- Bind a virtual IP address to multiple instances.
Bind a virtual IP address to an EIP to enable public network communication.

Constraints

It is recommended that a maximum of eight virtual IP addresses be bound to an ECS. If an ECS has multiple virtual IP addresses, each virtual IP address is used by a specific service. If there are too many services, the ECS may become overloaded and compromise user experience.

Binding a Virtual IP Address to an EIP or Instance on the Console

Go to the subnet list page.
In the subnet list, locate the target subnet and click its name.
The subnet details page is displayed.
On the IP Addresses tab, bind an EIP to the virtual IP address:
1. Locate the row that contains the virtual IP address and click Bind to EIP in the Operation column.
  The Bind to EIP dialog box is displayed.
2. Select an EIP and click OK.
  In the virtual IP address list, you can view the bound EIP.
On the IP Addresses tab, bind an instance to the virtual IP address:
1. Locate the row that contains the virtual IP address and click Bind to Instance in the Operation column.
  The Bind to Instance dialog box is displayed.
2. Select an instance and click OK.
  In the virtual IP address list, you can view the bound instance.
  - After you bind one or more virtual IP addresses to an ECS on the console, you need to manually configure the virtual IP addresses on the ECS. For details, see Configuring a Virtual IP Address for an ECS.
  - If you want to bind a virtual IP address to multiple ECSs and use Keepalived to build an HA cluster, see Using a Virtual IP Address and Keepalived to Set Up a High-Availability Web Cluster.

Configuring a Virtual IP Address for an ECS

After you bind one or more virtual IP addresses to an ECS on the console, you must log in to the ECS to manually configure these virtual IP addresses.

The following OSs are used as examples here. For other OSs, see the help documentation on their official websites.

Linux: CentOS 8.2 64bit, Ubuntu 22.04 server 64bit, Huawei Cloud EulerOS 2.0 Standard 64bit, Debian 12.0.0 64bit, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5 64bit
Windows: Windows Server

The following uses CentOS 8.2 64bit as an example.

Obtain the network interface that the virtual IP address is to be bound and the connection of the network interface:

nmcli connection

Information similar to the following is displayed:

[root@ecs-centos ~]# nmcli connection
NAME         UUID                                  TYPE      DEVICE 
System eth0  5fb06bd0-0bb0-7ffb-45f1-d6edd65f3e03  ethernet  eth0   
System eth1  9c92fad9-6ecb-3e6c-eb4d-8a47c6f50c04  ethernet  --     
System eth2  3a73717e-65ab-93e8-b518-24f5af32dc0d  ethernet  --     
System eth3  c5ca8081-6db2-4602-4b46-d771f4330a6d  ethernet  --     
System eth4  84d43311-57c8-8986-f205-9c78cd6ef5d2  ethernet  --

The command output in this example is described as follows:

eth0 in the DEVICE column indicates the network interface that the virtual IP address is to be bound.
System eth0 in the NAME column indicates the connection of the network interface.

Add the virtual IP address for the connection:
nmcli connection modify "connection-name-of-the-network-interface" +ipv4.addresses virtual-IP-address

Configure the parameters as follows:
- connection-name-of-the-network-interface: The connection name of the network interface obtained in 1. In this example, the connection name is System eth0.
- virtual-IP-address: Enter the virtual IP address to be added. If you add multiple virtual IP addresses at a time, separate every two with a comma (,).
Example commands:
- Adding a single virtual IP address: nmcli connection modify "System eth0" +ipv4.addresses 192.168.0.22
- Adding multiple virtual IP addresses: nmcli connection modify "System eth0" +ipv4.addresses 192.168.0.22,192.168.0.23
Make the configuration in 2 take effect:
nmcli connection up "connection-name-of-the-network-interface"

In this example, run the following command:

nmcli connection up "System eth0"
Information similar to the following is displayed:
```
[root@ecs-centos ~]# nmcli connection up "System eth0"
Connection successfully activated (D-Bus active path: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/2)
```
Check whether the virtual IP address has been bound:
ip a
Information similar to the following is displayed. In the command output, virtual IP address 192.168.0.22 is bound to network interface eth0.
```
[root@ecs-centos ~]# ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether fa:16:3e:54:ac:fa brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.0.22/32 scope global noprefixroute eth0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet 192.168.0.78/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute eth0
       valid_lft 315359994sec preferred_lft 315359994sec
    inet6 fe80::f816:3eff:fe54:acfa/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
```
After the preceding configurations are complete, the configurations will not be lost after the ECS is restarted.

To delete an added virtual IP address, perform the following steps:
1. Delete the virtual IP address from the connection of the network interface:
  nmcli connection modify "connection-name-of-the-network-interface" -ipv4.addresses virtual-IP-address
  To delete multiple virtual IP addresses at a time, separate every two with a comma (,). Example commands are as follows:
  
  Deleting a single virtual IP address: nmcli connection modify "System eth0" -ipv4.addresses 192.168.0.22
  
  Deleting multiple virtual IP addresses: nmcli connection modify "System eth0" -ipv4.addresses 192.168.0.22,192.168.0.23
2. Make the deletion take effect by referring to 3.

The following uses Ubuntu 22.04 server 64bit as an example. If the ECS runs Ubuntu 22 or Ubuntu 20, perform the following operations:

Obtain the network interface that the virtual IP address is to be bound:

ifconfig

Information similar to the following is displayed. In this example, the network interface with the virtual IP address bound is eth0.

root@ecs-X-ubantu:~# ifconfig
eth0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 172.16.0.210  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 172.16.0.255
        inet6 fe80::f816:3eff:fe01:f1c3  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether fa:16:3e:01:f1:c3  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 43915  bytes 63606486 (63.6 MB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 3364  bytes 455617 (455.6 KB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
...

Switch to the /etc/netplan directory:
cd /etc/netplan
Add a virtual IP address to the network interface.
1. Open the configuration file 01-netcfg.yaml:
  vim 01-netcfg.yaml
2. Press i to enter the editing mode.
3. In the network interface configuration area, add a virtual IP address.
  In this example, add a virtual IP address for eth0:
  
  addresses:
  
  - 172.16.0.26/32
  The file content is as follows:
```
network:
    version: 2
    renderer: NetworkManager
    ethernets:
        eth0:
            dhcp4: true
            addresses:
            - 172.16.0.26/32
        eth1:
            dhcp4: true
        eth2:
            dhcp4: true
        eth3:
            dhcp4: true
        eth4:
            dhcp4: true
```
4. Press Esc, enter :wq!, save the configuration, and exit.
Make the configuration in 3 take effect:
netplan apply

Check whether the virtual IP address has been bound:

ip a

Information similar to the following is displayed. In the command output, virtual IP address 172.16.0.26 is bound to network interface eth0.

root@ecs-X-ubantu:/etc/netplan# ip a
...
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether fa:16:3e:01:f1:c3 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    altname enp0s3
    altname ens3
    inet 172.16.0.26/32 scope global noprefixroute eth0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet 172.16.0.210/24 brd 172.16.0.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute eth0
       valid_lft 107999971sec preferred_lft 107999971sec
    inet6 fe80::f816:3eff:fe01:f1c3/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

After the preceding configurations are complete, the configurations will not be lost after the ECS is restarted.

To delete an added virtual IP address, perform the following steps:

Open the configuration file 01-netcfg.yaml and delete the virtual IP address of the corresponding network interface by referring to 3.
Make the deletion take effect by referring to 4.

The following uses Huawei Cloud EulerOS 2.0 Standard 64bit as an example.

Obtain the network interface that the virtual IP address is to be bound and the connection of the network interface:

nmcli connection

Information similar to the following is displayed:

[root@ecs-hce ~]# nmcli connection
NAME         UUID                                  TYPE      DEVICE 
System eth0  5fb06bd0-0bb0-7ffb-45f1-d6edd65f3e03  ethernet  eth0   
System eth1  9c92fad9-6ecb-3e6c-eb4d-8a47c6f50c04  ethernet  --     
System eth2  3a73717e-65ab-93e8-b518-24f5af32dc0d  ethernet  --     
System eth3  c5ca8081-6db2-4602-4b46-d771f4330a6d  ethernet  --     
System eth4  84d43311-57c8-8986-f205-9c78cd6ef5d2  ethernet  --

The command output in this example is described as follows:

eth0 in the DEVICE column indicates the network interface that the virtual IP address is to be bound.
System eth0 in the NAME column indicates the connection of the network interface.

Add the virtual IP address for the connection:
nmcli connection modify "connection-name-of-the-network-interface" +ipv4.addresses virtual-IP-address

The parameters are described as follows:
- connection-name-of-the-network-interface: The connection name of the network interface obtained in 1. In this example, the connection name is System eth0.
- virtual-IP-address: Enter the virtual IP address to be added. If you add multiple virtual IP addresses at a time, separate every two with a comma (,).
Example command:
- Adding a single virtual IP address: nmcli connection modify "System eth0" +ipv4.addresses 192.168.0.23
- Adding multiple virtual IP addresses: nmcli connection modify "System eth0" +ipv4.addresses 192.168.0.23,192.168.0.25
Make the configuration in 2 take effect:
nmcli connection up "connection-name-of-the-network-interface"

Example command:

nmcli connection up "System eth0"
Information similar to the following is displayed:
```
[root@ecs-hce ~]# nmcli connection up "System eth0"
Connection successfully activated (D-Bus active path: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/2)
```
Check whether the virtual IP address has been bound:
ip a
Information similar to the following is displayed. In the command output, virtual IP address 192.168.0.23 is bound to network interface eth0.
```
[root@ecs-hce ~]# ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether fa:16:3e:54:ac:af brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.0.23/32 scope global noprefixroute eth0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet 192.168.0.3/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute eth0
       valid_lft 315359982sec preferred_lft 315359982sec
    inet6 fe80::f816:3eff:fe54:acaf/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
```
After the preceding configurations are complete, the configurations will not be lost after the ECS is restarted.

To delete an added virtual IP address, perform the following steps:
1. Delete the virtual IP address from the connection of the network interface:
  nmcli connection modify "connection-name-of-the-network-interface" -ipv4.addresses virtual-IP-address
  To delete multiple virtual IP addresses at a time, separate every two with a comma (,). Example commands are as follows:
  
  Deleting a single virtual IP address: nmcli connection modify "System eth0" -ipv4.addresses 192.168.0.22
  
  Deleting multiple virtual IP addresses: nmcli connection modify "System eth0" -ipv4.addresses 192.168.0.22,192.168.0.23
2. Make the deletion take effect by referring to 3.

The following uses Debian 12.0.0 64bit as an example.

Obtain the network interface that the virtual IP address is to be bound and the connection of the network interface:
nmcli connection
Information similar to the following is displayed:
```
root@ecs-debian:~# nmcli connection
NAME             UUID                                  TYPE      DEVICE 
Ifupdown (eth0)  681b428f-beaf-8932-dce4-687ed5bae28e  ethernet  eth0   
lo               03e619be-07fa-4994-86dc-7b434c9646b7  loopback  lo     
Ifupdown (eth1)  7b635ed6-2640-7ad8-675d-744db12dd9fa  ethernet  --     
Ifupdown (eth2)  226544c9-6fc1-ece7-546d-3ee32748889b  ethernet  --     
Ifupdown (eth3)  7f363dc1-9ded-33e4-2e54-4d44c6c458d1  ethernet  --     
Ifupdown (eth4)  9186222c-4821-e5d9-f5fd-35125fc70b0a  ethernet  -- 
```
The command output in this example is described as follows:
- eth0 in the DEVICE column indicates the network interface that the virtual IP address is to be bound.
- Ifupdown (eth0) in the NAME column indicates the connection of the network interface, which is managed by the traditional ifupdown tool. The network interface information is configured in /etc/network/interfaces.

Add a virtual IP address to the network interface.
1. Open the configuration file:
  vim /etc/network/interfaces
2. Press i to enter the editing mode.
3. In the network interface configuration area, add a virtual IP address.
  In this example, add a virtual IP address for eth0:
  
  up ip addr add 192.168.0.22/32 dev eth0
  
  In the preceding command, 192.168.0.22/32 indicates the virtual IP address. Set it based on the site requirements.
  The file content is as follows:
```
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
    up ip addr add 192.168.0.22/32 dev eth0
```
  To add multiple virtual IP addresses, add one IP address in each line. For example, to add two virtual IP addresses 192.168.0.22 and 192.168.0.23, add the following content:
  
  up ip addr add 192.168.0.22/32 dev eth0
  
  up ip addr add 192.168.0.23/32 dev eth0
4. Press Esc, enter :wq!, save the configuration, and exit.
Check the network service status:
systemctl is-enabled networking
If information similar to the following is displayed and the output is not enabled, go to 4. If the output is enabled, skip 4.
```
root@ecs-debian:~# systemctl is-enabled networking
disabled
```

Enable automatic system startup to preserve configuration after restart:

systemctl enable networking

Information similar to the following is displayed:

root@ecs-debian:~# systemctl enable networking
Synchronizing state of networking.service with SysV service script with /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install.
Executing: /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install enable networking
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/networking.service → /lib/systemd/system/networking.service.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/network-online.target.wants/networking.service → /lib/systemd/system/networking.service.

Restart the ECS for the configuration in 2 to take effect:
reboot

Check whether the virtual IP address has been bound:

ip a

Information similar to the following is displayed. In the command output, virtual IP address 192.168.0.22 is bound to network interface eth0.

root@ecs-debian:~# ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host noprefixroute 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether fa:16:3e:54:ac:c9 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    altname enp0s3
    altname ens3
    inet 192.168.0.29/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute eth0
       valid_lft 315358226sec preferred_lft 315358226sec
    inet 192.168.0.22/32 scope global eth0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::c29f:1bdd:5027:6acc/64 scope link noprefixroute 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

After the preceding configurations are complete, the configurations will not be lost after the ECS is restarted.

To delete an added virtual IP address, perform the following steps:

Open the configuration file and delete the virtual IP address configuration information of the corresponding network interface by referring to 2.
Restart the ECS for the deletion to take effect by referring to 5.

The following uses SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5 64bit as an example.

Obtain the network interface that the virtual IP address is to be bound and the connection of the network interface:

ip a

Information similar to the following is displayed. In this example, the network interface with the virtual IP address bound is eth0.

ecs-suse:~ # ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether fa:16:3e:54:ac:eb brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    altname enp0s3
    altname ens3
    inet 192.168.0.63/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global eth0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::f816:3eff:fe54:aceb/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Add a virtual IP address to the network interface.
1. Open the configuration file:
  vim /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-eth0
2. Press i to enter the editing mode.
3. In the network interface configuration area, add a virtual IP address.
  In this example, add a virtual IP address for eth0:
  
  IPADDR_1=192.168.0.22
  
  NETMASK_1=255.255.255.0
  
  In the preceding command, 192.168.0.22 indicates the virtual IP address. Set it based on the site requirements. 255.255.255.0 indicates the mask of the virtual IP address. The value is fixed and does not need to be changed.
  The file content is as follows:
```
DEVICE="eth0"
BOOTPROTO="dhcp"
STARTMODE="auto"
TYPE="Ethernet"
IPADDR_1=192.168.0.22
NETMASK_1=255.255.255.0
```
  To add multiple virtual IP addresses, add one IP address in each line. For example, to add two virtual IP addresses 192.168.0.22 and 192.168.0.23, add the following content:
  
  IPADDR_1=192.168.0.22
  
  NETMASK_1=255.255.255.0
  
  IPADDR_2=192.168.0.23
  
  NETMASK_2=255.255.255.0
4. Press Esc, enter :wq!, save the configuration, and exit.
Restart the network service for the configuration in 2 to take effect:
systemctl restart network

Check whether the virtual IP address has been bound:

ip a

Information similar to the following is displayed. In the command output, virtual IP address 192.168.0.22 is bound to network interface eth0.

ecs-suse:~ # ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether fa:16:3e:54:ac:eb brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    altname enp0s3
    altname ens3
    inet 192.168.0.22/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global eth0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet 192.168.0.63/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global secondary eth0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::f816:3eff:fe54:aceb/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

After the preceding configurations are complete, the configurations will not be lost after the ECS is restarted.

To delete an added virtual IP address, perform the following steps:

Open the configuration file and delete the virtual IP address configuration information of the corresponding network interface by referring to 2.
Restart the network service for the deletion to take effect by referring to 3.

The following operations use Windows Server as an example.

In Control Panel, click Network and Sharing Center, and click the corresponding local connection.
On the displayed page, click Properties.
On the Network tab page, select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4).
Click Properties.
Select Use the following IP address and set IP address to the private IP address of the ECS, for example, 10.0.0.101.
Figure 1 Configuring private IP address
Click Advanced.
On the IP Settings tab, click Add in the IP addresses area.
Add the virtual IP address, for example, 10.0.0.154.

Figure 2 Configuring virtual IP address
Click OK.
In the Start menu, open the Windows command line window and run the following command to check whether the virtual IP address has been configured:
ipconfig /all

In the command output, IPv4 Address is the virtual IP address 10.0.0.154, indicating that the virtual IP address of the ECS's network interface has been correctly configured.