Floating IP

A floating IP (aka FIP), is a public accessible IPv4 address. It is used with Service to enable public access to the associated pods. You cannot attach multiple floating IPs to a service, but you can associate multiple services with one single floating IP (as long as no port flicts among different services).

If you allocate a floating IP address but do not use it, you will be charged for the IP address. If you use it (with Service), you will not be charged for it.

Lifecycle

You need to explicitly allocate and release floating IPs:

$ pi create fip
fip/104.197.12.87

$ pi delete fip 104.197.12.87
fip "104.197.12.87" deleted

You cannot release an FIP while it is in use.

Associate Floating IP with Service

Create a new service using an existing floating IP:

$ pi create fip
fip/104.154.140.179

$ cat <<EOF > /tmp/httpLB.yml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: http-lb
spec:
  type: LoadBalancer
  loadBalancerIP: 104.154.140.179
  selector:
    app: http
  ports:
    - port: 80
      targetPort: 8080
EOF
$ pi create -f /tmp/httpLB.yml
service/http-lb

You can also associate multiple service to one floating IP, with different ports:

$ cat <<EOF > /tmp/httpsLB.yml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: https-lb
spec:
  type: LoadBalancer
  loadBalancerIP: 104.154.140.179
  selector:
    app: https
  ports:
    - port: 443
      targetPort: 4433
EOF
$ pi create -f /tmp/httpsLB.yml
service/https-lb

Billing

If you allocate a floating IP address but do not use it, you will be charged with an hourly rate ($0.01/hour). If you use it (with Service), you will not be charged for it.