Today, we’ll shed light on Internet Gateways and Egress-Only Internet Gateways. These are fundamental components that play a crucial role in connecting your AWS resources to the internet while maintaining security and control.
Understanding Internet Gateways:
Internet Gateways are a central component in AWS VPCs. They are directly attached to a VPC, and each VPC can have only one Internet Gateway. Their primary purpose is to facilitate communication between instances within the VPC and the external internet. Here are some key characteristics of Internet Gateways:
- Managed by AWS: Internet Gateways are fully managed by AWS, which means they are maintained, scaled, and made highly available by AWS. You don’t need to worry about their availability.
- Horizontal Scalability: They are horizontally scalable, which ensures that they can handle high volumes of internet traffic.
- Redundancy: Internet Gateways are redundant, ensuring that your internet traffic remains uninterrupted even if one Gateway goes down.
How Internet Gateways Work:
For any communication between instances within a VPC and the internet, the traffic has to pass through the Internet Gateway. To ensure that your instances are properly connected to the internet, consider the following conditions:
- An Internet Gateway must exist and be attached to your VPC.
- Your associated route table must have a route pointing to the Internet Gateway.
- The instance making the internet request must either have a public IP or communicate through a NAT Gateway.
- Traffic must be allowed through Network Access Control Lists (NACLs) and Security Groups.
Creating an Internet Gateway:
Creating an Internet Gateway is straightforward. Follow these steps:
- Log in to your AWS Management Console.
- Access the VPC Section by clicking on “Services” and typing “VPC” in the search bar.
- Find “Internet Gateways” in the VPC Dashboard and click “Create Internet Gateway.”
- Provide a name for the Internet Gateway and click “Create Internet Gateway.”
- After creating it, you also need to attach it to a specific VPC. Select the VPC and click “Attach Internet Gateway.”
That’s it! Your Internet Gateway is now ready to facilitate internet connectivity for your instances.
Understanding Egress-Only Internet Gateways:
Now, let’s talk about Egress-Only Internet Gateways. “Egress” means outbound, so an Egress-Only Internet Gateway allows outbound connectivity from your instances to the internet while preventing incoming connections from the internet. Here are some important details about Egress-Only Internet Gateways:
- They are specifically designed for IPv6 traffic.
- They do not work with instances that have IPv4 addresses.
- Egress-Only Internet Gateways are stateful, meaning they allow traffic initiated by instances within the VPC to flow to the internet and back.
Creating an Egress-Only Internet Gateway:
Creating an Egress-Only Internet Gateway is simple:
- Log in to your AWS Management Console.
- Access the VPC Section by clicking on “Services” and typing “VPC” in the search bar.
- Find “Egress-Only Internet Gateways” in the VPC Dashboard and click “Create Egress-Only Internet Gateway.”
- Provide a name and select the VPC to which you want to attach it.
- Click “Create Egress-Only Internet Gateway.”
Conclusion:
In conclusion, Internet Gateways and Egress-Only Internet Gateways are essential components of AWS VPCs, ensuring that your instances can access the internet while maintaining security and control over inbound and outbound traffic. These gateways are fully managed by AWS, making them highly available and scalable.
Thank you for joining us in this session, and we hope you now have a better understanding of Internet Gateways and Egress-Only Internet Gateways in AWS VPCs. Stay tuned for more informative sessions in our networking and VPC series. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. See you in the next video!