Direct Access to RackConnected Cloud Servers via Public IP Address

If the Automation Feature “Provision public IP address” is Enabled, RackConnect automatically assigns a new Public IP address from one of your Dedicated IP Blocks to each of your Cloud Servers and adds the appropriate translation (NAT) to your Edge Network Device.  Once the IP address is assigned, you may view it by querying the Cloud Servers API or looking up the Cloud Server in the MyRackspace Portal.

[RackConnected Cloud Server’s IP information in the RackConnect Management Interface section of the MyRackspace Portal]

Note: Disregard the initial Public IP address assigned to your Cloud Server when it was built.  When the RackConnect automation completes, that initial Public IP address is no longer used.

You must explicitly create one or more Network Policies to allow direct access to your RackConnected Cloud Servers from the Internet via their Public IP address. By default, Network Policies do not allow inbound access from the Internet to your Cloud Servers, even if you applied the Basic Access Network Policy Template. (The one exception to this would be any existing rules on the outside/external access list of your Edge Network Device that allow requests destined for any Public IP address through any ports or protocols).

Alternative methods of connecting to your RackConnected Cloud Servers

Other than the “Direct Access to Cloud Servers via Public IP Address” method detailed in the previous section, there are some alternative methods of connecting to your RackConnected Cloud Servers:

• Connect from one of your Dedicated Servers to your RackConnected Cloud Server using the Private IP address of the Cloud Server.  This will require that you have an appropriate “Dedicated to Cloud Server(s)” Network Policy deployed.
• You can connect to the Console of first-gen Cloud Servers from within the Classic Cloud Control Panel, and to the Console of next-gen Cloud Servers from within the New Cloud Control Panel.
• If you are using a Cisco ASA as your RackConnect Edge Network Device, you can work with the Network Security Team to implement either a Site-to-Site VPN or Client VPN solution to allow direct access to your Cloud Servers via their Private IP addresses.  This option will also require that you have an appropriate “Dedicated to Cloud Server(s)” Network Policy deployed to allow your VPN Network to access your Cloud Servers.

IMPORTANT NOTE: When connecting between your Cloud and Dedicated environments with RackConnect, you should always use the Private IP addresses of your Dedicated and Cloud Servers.

Next ---> Using Dedicated Load Balancers with RackConnect