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Requesting Additional IPv4 Addresses for First and Next Generation Cloud Servers

  • Article ID: 1179
  • Last updated on May 20, 2013
  • Authored by: Rackspace Support
  • (47 Comments)

Rackspace offers the ability to add IPv4 addresses to Cloud Servers in our first-generation and next-generation cloud environments for a fee. If you wish to obtain an additional IPv4 address for your server please open a ticket through the Support section of the Cloud Control Panel to request policy and pricing information.

Due to the global shortage of IPv4 address space, Rackspace currently only offers additional IPv4 addresses for SSL purposes.

Once approved for an additional IP address you'll be asked to supply the following information:

  • The name of the server for which you would like to add the IP address.
  • Permission to restart the network service so that Cloud Support can configure the IP address. Please indicate an acceptable maintenance window for us to perform the change, if necessary.
  • The SSL certificate. The certificate must have been signed by a valid Certificate Authority; self-signed certificates are not accepted.

Please note that we cannot allocate more than 4 additional IPv4 addresses to a single Cloud Server. This gives each Cloud Server a maximum capacity of five (5) IPv4 addresses including the originally assigned public IP address.



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47 Comments

What a f...k!!

I can understand Your policy, but why $2 per IP per month?!!
It was free up to 5 IPs, but now...

Maybe later You guys will increase the charge for Your services, who knows?!!

I am thinking already go back to Amazon EC2...
By Kamol on Jul. 30, 2012

Unfortunately what the article says about IPv4 addresses rapidly vanishing worldwide is true. We have a finite number of IPv4 addresses left, so I expect pricing measures like that are intended to encourage people to look for alternatives to using multiple IPv4 addresses. We're still working on IPv6 support for Cloud Servers - once that's available customers will receive large blocks of multiple addresses for no extra charge.
By jered.heeschen on Jul. 30, 2012

How i can host few sites on one IP? This is impossible for me. No privacy from competitors, no privacy for different businesses, and bad for my SEO strategy. Very bad.

IPv6 is not working on the most internet providers.
By Maxim on Jul. 30, 2012

You should be able to work around privacy and SEO concerns by using different domains pointing to the same IP address. A web server like apache will handle connections according to the domain in the address requested by the browser, so you can use the same IP address for each different domain (called "name-based virtual hosts"). If you use SSL it gets trickier, since certificates are usually based on IP address because of the way browsers have traditionally worked. A tech called "SNI" allows for multiple domains on one IP address with SSL, but only more recent browsers support it.
By jered.heeschen on Jul. 30, 2012

In addition to what Jered stated, major search engines like google and yahoo are aware of shared hosting environments. They don't rank based on IP. If you contact them, they can confirm this.
By Robbey on May. 1, 2013

How much Cloud accounts (another clients) on one IP?
By Maxim on Jul. 30, 2012

What if i want use nginx on another IP? How professional can work w/o ip addresses?
By Maxim on Jul. 30, 2012

Hi Maxim,
Please read our article on name-based virtual hosting, here:

http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/node/1900

It has examples for virtual host configurations in both Apache and Nginx. At this time, we can only release additional IPv4 addresses is for SSL. Of course you always get a perfectly good IPv4 address with every server that you build, so you may just want to create an additional server.
By ross.diaz on Jul. 30, 2012

NGINX ( Custom compiled after manually installing other packages ) worked great for me with multiples in a single address along side additional IP's.
By Steven Smith on Jul. 30, 2012

We have been hosting with Fasthost and after recommendation decided to open a cloud server account with RS. It would have been nice to have been told about the single address before we wasted a week with meetings about the move. We were testing RS with a DNS server first and then possibly moving the hosting of servers but this has made our decision already. bad bad bad....
By Grant Turner on Jul. 30, 2012

Out of curiosity, why do you require multiple IP addresses to host a DNS server?
By jered.heeschen on Jul. 30, 2012

We have used rack space cloud servers for both primary and backup name servers for some of our customers. The reason you would need two IP addresses is if you want to use the same server for both primary and backup, which in my experience is not a good idea. The preferable solution is to host you name servers in separate NOCs in separate areas of the country. For example we might have a name server in VA, CA and WA each with different upstream providers.
By Roger Weiss on Jul. 30, 2012

I realize self-signed certificates are listed as not allowed, but could this policy ever change?

The CA business can be viewed as unneeded/waste of money by some people and organizations and with the start of the Convergence project by Moxie Marlinspike, CA are not needed anymore.

The Convergence project is here:
http://convergence.io

It would be nice if that part of the policy could be re-visited as I do need multiple sockets, specifically for SSL but do not support that industry. I will understand if that policy cannot be revisited, perhaps it's for a variety of reasons you will not accept the certs.

If that ends up being the case, I will have to figure something else out for my projects or the ipv6 rollout or something I suppose.
By Jesse on Jul. 30, 2012

It's a reasonable suggestion, certainly. You might post it to our feature request forum:

http://feedback.rackspacecloud.com/forums/71021-product-feedback

It would be more likely to be seen by decision-makers there, at any rate, than working its way up the chain from here.

If you're going to use Convergence then you can probably also use SNI, though, which would obviate the need for an additional IP address. A user who installs a plug-in for Convergence right now is likely to be using an SNI-compliant browser (newer versions of Firefox and Chrome support it, with the main exceptions right now being IE or Safari running on Windows XP, along with Blackberry and Android default browsers).

http://wiki.apache.org/httpd/NameBasedSSLVHostsWithSNI
By jered.heeschen on Jul. 30, 2012

Why the limit of 5 to a single server? How can I host multiple websites for SSL purposes?
By Christian Pearce on Jul. 30, 2012

The per-server limit is in place because of the finite availability of IPv4 addresses, I'm afraid. The best approach I can suggest for now would be additional servers for the additional IP addresses. You can try SNI (which allows multiple domains to use SSL on a single IP address), but the limited support for it in IE on Windows XP does make that a less than ideal approach as well.

When IPv6 is available on Cloud Servers there will not be a limit on IPv6 addresses per server.
By jered.heeschen on Jul. 30, 2012

Something now clearly mentioned is that they're giving an extra IP ONLY FOR SSL purposes!
I was DENIED an extra IP otherwise - and this is the first time it ever happened to me.

I needed one IP for Apache and another IP for a java-based server that also had to run on on port 80. I had this working on other hosts, Rackspace was the only one denying me the IP (even if paying for it!)
By Armand Niculescu on Jul. 30, 2012

Out of curiosity, are you running both apache and the app server such that both have to receive external connections, or is apache relaying connections back to the java app server? If the latter, you should be able to bind apache to the external address and the java server to localhost (127.0.0.1), allowing both servers to bind to port 80 without conflict.
By jered.heeschen on Jul. 30, 2012

Does rackspace support ipv6?
I know with hardware and opensource software should not be a problem.
This way there would be no need for private and public subnets just one complete network of all tcp/ip capable devices of course managed with FW rules. And this would also be a great way to get into ipv6 at least for me.
By Alex on Jul. 30, 2012

We're still working on getting ipv6 implemented and available on Cloud Servers. The sooner the better, definitely. There is some support for ipv6 in other products (Cloud Sites and Cloud Files, for example), but we're taking some extra time getting Cloud Servers ready.
By jered.heeschen on Jul. 30, 2012

I currently have 2 linux cloud servers and would like to consolidate it into 1 server only, however I'd need the IP i'm using on the 2nd one to be moved to the 1st. Obviously this means I will incur the cost of $2 for the IP, but was wondering if it would be possible doing something like that.
By Anonymous on Jul. 30, 2012

If you're moving the IP address because of an SSL certificate it would probably be approved, as I understand it. For most other reasons you'd probably be encouraged to find a workaround. They've gotten rather strict about extra IP addresses on servers.
By jered.heeschen on Jul. 30, 2012

Is v6 support available yet?
By Charlie on Jul. 30, 2012

Not yet, but there will be some limited support in our Next-Generation Cloud, some aspects of which are in limited availability right now.

http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/nextgen/

In the meantime we do have NAT64 in place to allow incoming IPv6 connections.

http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/content/using-nat64
By jered.heeschen on Jul. 30, 2012

I'm quite stunned by above FAQ and the responses of customer service.

First, it's not the customers fault that you're running out of IP addresses. It your own. Back in 1998/99, I knew IP addresses were running out. You, and most other internet companies, failed to implement IPv6 in time. In fact, I still cannot get IPv6 on my rackspace cloud server in Q3 of 2012.
And now the customers have to account for what they will be using extra IP addresses for? Dafuq?

And saying it will only be available for SSL hosting? You should be happy that customers are willing to host with you, and pay you. They should never be required to tell you what they do with stuff they pay for...
By Dave on Sep. 4, 2012

We host dozens of websites, and we require multiple IP address per server for SSL reasons. You are really not working for your customer when you made this change.

We have since found a provider named Cloud Chase (www.cloudchase.net) that offers UP TO 8 IP addresses per server. 8! How come they can do it and you cannot? They don't even require a reason.
By James Littleton on Sep. 27, 2012

Thanks for the lead...

I have the same problem, a few small sites of my own to host and each needs SSL, but isn't practical to host with Rackspace I guess.
By Jeff Pelton on Oct. 21, 2012

I can't believe only one IP address is allowed per next-gen instance. I just finished building our production and staging servers for my work, and after all of that, we can't even host more than a single SSL site on it. Completely useless!
By Doug Kulak on Nov. 13, 2012

Unfortunately there are still features being worked on for our OpenStack implementation, and multiple IP addresses per instance is one of those features (another big one is a lack of reverse DNS control). You can create a "first generation server" via the control panel (or by switching to our original control panel), and that will let you make an instance that supports multiple IPv4 addresses.
By jered.heeschen on Nov. 14, 2012

I've been pushed into this cloud system because your dedicated managed server rates have more than doubled over the past few years, and I was all ready to get our sites set up on this cloud system only to find that we can only have ONE ip number on this cloud server! That's ridiculous. We have 3 SSL certificates that each need their own IP. It's really too bad, but, the writing on the wall is clear: Rackspace no longer serves our needs. We tried to stay a customer, but, you have made it impossible.
By Tom on Dec. 14, 2012

I'm sorry to hear about the problems you're having with us, Tom. I can say that you should be permitted to get additional IP addresses when you need them for SSL certificates.

It's possible you've created a "next-generation" cloud server, and we don't support additional IP addresses on those servers yet - it's a technical limitation that we hope to overcome soon. If that's the case you might need to migrate your data to a first-generation server (which you can create through the first-generation control panel), then request the additional IP addresses.

One more possibility is to use our Cloud Load Balancers product to proxy the connections back to the server, offloading the SSL handling to the load balancer. That might be the easiest approach but would also likely be the more expensive option.
By jered.heeschen on Dec. 17, 2012

with one IP.
By Lee on Dec. 18, 2012

I host customers who have ssl certificates. Is it still not possible to host additional IPs on a Next Gen server?
By Joe Winett on Feb. 26, 2013

You still cannot add additional IP addresses to a next-gen server, but they are working on fixing that. "Soon" is as specific as I can get about when it will be offered, unfortunately.
By jered.heeschen on Feb. 26, 2013

Has rackspace redefined what next gen means? One IP per server is V1 or first gen.
By joel on Mar. 3, 2013

When we talk about "first gen" Cloud Servers we mean our original cloud platform, while "next gen" is Cloud Servers on our newer OpenStack-based platform. At this time you can get extra IPv4 addresses on first gen for a fee, while next gen servers are limited to one IPv4 address and one IPv6 address per server. We're working on allowing additional addresses on next gen servers, and hopefully that will be available soon.
By jered.heeschen on Mar. 3, 2013

Lindsey Anderson
Mar 14, 2013 - 9:31 PM
Hello,

Unfortunately we do not have the ability to add additional IP addresses onto our NextGen servers yet. This is a feature that is currently being worked on but is not yet available and we do not have an ETA. Once this feature is added, we cannot transfer IP addresses between machines and they would be changed.

Checking onto your current SSL certificates, I see that you have one for 'www.aclsrecertificationonline.com', 'www.acls.net', and 'www.aclsrenewal.org'. These certificates are not valid for anything other than the www and non-www variants of your sites.

As always, Should you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact us by updating this ticket or starting a chat session. We are here for you 24/7!

Thank you,

Lindsey Anderson
The Rackspace Cloud
Support: xxxxxx
https://community.rackspace.com/
By William Entriken on Mar. 18, 2013

Thanks for the summary William. As Lindsey says, don't hesitate to contact us if you have further questions. We do hope to offer additional IPv4 addresses on next-gen servers soon.
By jered.heeschen on Mar. 18, 2013

Dear All

I need 2 more extra IPs but what do they mean by giving SSL cert.\how can i get it and what is it exactly?

Regards
Rehan
By Rehan on Apr. 25, 2013

SSL certificates are based on a unique IP address and domain combination in its traditional implementation in web servers. That means if the same server has multiple sites that require their own SSL certificates, those sites need their own IP addresses as well.

If you need extra IP addresses for other reasons, they probably won't be granted (because of the limited number of IPv4 addresses remaining in our public pool), but there may be alternatives we could employ depending on the nature of the need. If you can tell me what the extra IPs are for I can try to help.
By jered.heeschen on Apr. 25, 2013

Is there really no timeline for multiple IP address support on Next Gen Servers? Surely someone can say "sometime in 2013" or "more like 2014".

I would like to start using Server 2012 for new projects as the 2015 date for Server 2008 R2 extended support is not that far away, but that image isn't supported on First Gen. Having multiple SSL bindings is a requirement, so I can't use Next Gen, and practical public use of SNI is still years away. What a mess!
By Nicholas Piasecki on Apr. 26, 2013

I don't have an official timeline, but unofficially, I'd expect it this year. To be perfectly honest I'd expected multiple IPs for next-gen to be ready by now, so there must still be some stubborn bugs to work through before deployment.
By jered.heeschen on Apr. 26, 2013

You can now have additional IPv4 addresses on next-generation servers - the article above has been updated accordingly. Please contact Support for details.
By jered.heeschen on May. 2, 2013

YAY!
By Nicholas Piasecki on May. 2, 2013

Additional IPv4 addresses for cloud servers are now available to use in NextGen.
By Sameer Satyam on May. 1, 2013

I don't get this. There are plenty of IPv4 addresses available. If you want some - just contact me. What has Rackspace done to firm up supply security?????????
By Greg Nachtwey on May. 22, 2013

Limiting the number of extra IPv4 addresses we hand out is one way we're attending to our supply of addresses. It's not an unusual policy in this industry, and for most applications there are alternatives to extra IPv4 addresses.

For more details on the IPv4 address exhaustion problem, you can visit the Wikipedia page on the subject:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv4_address_exhaustion
By jered.heeschen on May. 23, 2013

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