---
title: Service IPs
canonical_url: 'https://docs.projectcalico.org/v3.5/usage/openstack/service-ips'
---

Calico supports two approaches for assigning a service IP to a Calico-networked
VM:

- using a floating IP

- using an additional fixed IP on the relevant Neutron port.

Both of these are standard Neutron practice - in other words, operations that
have long been supported on the Neutron API.  They are not Calico-specific,
except insofar as the Calico driver needs to implement some of the low-level
operations that are needed to make the expected semantics work.

The key semantic difference between those approaches is that:

- With a floating IP, the target VM itself is not aware of the service IP.
  Instead, data sent to the floating IP is DNAT'd, to the target VM's fixed IP,
  before that data reaches the target VM.  So the target VM only ever sees data
  addressed to its fixed IP.

- With the service IP as an additional fixed IP, the target VM is (and must be)
  aware of the service IP, because data addressed to the service IP reaches the
  target VM without any DNAT.

The use of floating IPs is already well known, so we won't labour how to use
those here.  For some additional information on how Calico supports floating
IPs, see [Floating
IPs]({{site.baseurl}}/{{page.version}}/usage/openstack/floating-ips).

The use and maintainance of additional fixed IPs, however, is not so well
known, so in the following transcripts we demonstrate this approach for
assigning a service IP to a Calico-networked VM.

We begin by creating a test VM that will be the target of the service IP.

Creating a test VM
------------------

Check name of the available CirrOS image:

    core@access-node$ nova image-list
    WARNING: Command image-list is deprecated and will be removed after Nova 15.0.0 is released. Use python-glanceclient or openstackclient instead.
    +--------------------------------------+---------------------+--------+--------+
    | ID                                   | Name                | Status | Server |
    +--------------------------------------+---------------------+--------+--------+
    | b69ab3bd-2bbc-4086-b4ae-f01d9f6b5078 | cirros-0.3.2-x86_64 | ACTIVE |        |
    | 866879b9-532b-44c6-a547-ac59de68df2d | ipv6_enabled_image  | ACTIVE |        |
    +--------------------------------------+---------------------+--------+--------+

Boot a VM:

    core@access-node$ nova boot --flavor m1.tiny --image cirros-0.3.2-x86_64 --nic net-name=demo-net testvm1
    +--------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+
    | Property                             | Value                                                      |
    +--------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+
    | OS-DCF:diskConfig                    | MANUAL                                                     |
    | OS-EXT-AZ:availability_zone          | nova                                                       |
    | OS-EXT-SRV-ATTR:host                 | -                                                          |
    | OS-EXT-SRV-ATTR:hypervisor_hostname  | -                                                          |
    | OS-EXT-SRV-ATTR:instance_name        | instance-0000000d                                          |
    | OS-EXT-STS:power_state               | 0                                                          |
    | OS-EXT-STS:task_state                | scheduling                                                 |
    | OS-EXT-STS:vm_state                  | building                                                   |
    | OS-SRV-USG:launched_at               | -                                                          |
    | OS-SRV-USG:terminated_at             | -                                                          |
    | accessIPv4                           |                                                            |
    | accessIPv6                           |                                                            |
    | adminPass                            | HKLzcUT5L52B                                               |
    | config_drive                         |                                                            |
    | created                              | 2017-01-13T13:50:32Z                                       |
    | flavor                               | m1.tiny (1)                                                |
    | hostId                               |                                                            |
    | id                                   | b6d8a3c4-9674-4972-9151-11107b60d622                       |
    | image                                | cirros-0.3.2-x86_64 (b69ab3bd-2bbc-4086-b4ae-f01d9f6b5078) |
    | key_name                             | -                                                          |
    | metadata                             | {}                                                         |
    | name                                 | testvm1                                                    |
    | os-extended-volumes:volumes_attached | []                                                         |
    | progress                             | 0                                                          |
    | security_groups                      | default                                                    |
    | status                               | BUILD                                                      |
    | tenant_id                            | 26778b0f745143c5a9b0c7e1a621bb80                           |
    | updated                              | 2017-01-13T13:50:32Z                                       |
    | user_id                              | 7efbea74c20a4eeabc00b7740aa4d353                           |
    +--------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+

Check when the VM has booted:

    core@access-node$ nova list
    +--------------------------------------+---------+--------+------------+-------------+----------------------------------------------+
    | ID                                   | Name    | Status | Task State | Power State | Networks                                     |
    +--------------------------------------+---------+--------+------------+-------------+----------------------------------------------+
    | b6d8a3c4-9674-4972-9151-11107b60d622 | testvm1 | ACTIVE | -          | Running     | demo-net=10.28.0.13, fd5f:5d21:845:1c2e:2::d |
    +--------------------------------------+---------+--------+------------+-------------+----------------------------------------------+

    core@access-node$ nova show testvm1
    +--------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+
    | Property                             | Value                                                      |
    +--------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+
    | OS-DCF:diskConfig                    | MANUAL                                                     |
    | OS-EXT-AZ:availability_zone          | neil-fv-0-ubuntu-kilo-compute-node01                       |
    | OS-EXT-SRV-ATTR:host                 | neil-fv-0-ubuntu-kilo-compute-node01                       |
    | OS-EXT-SRV-ATTR:hypervisor_hostname  | neil-fv-0-ubuntu-kilo-compute-node01                       |
    | OS-EXT-SRV-ATTR:instance_name        | instance-0000000d                                          |
    | OS-EXT-STS:power_state               | 1                                                          |
    | OS-EXT-STS:task_state                | -                                                          |
    | OS-EXT-STS:vm_state                  | active                                                     |
    | OS-SRV-USG:launched_at               | 2017-01-13T13:50:39.000000                                 |
    | OS-SRV-USG:terminated_at             | -                                                          |
    | accessIPv4                           |                                                            |
    | accessIPv6                           |                                                            |
    | config_drive                         |                                                            |
    | created                              | 2017-01-13T13:50:32Z                                       |
    | demo-net network                     | 10.28.0.13, fd5f:5d21:845:1c2e:2::d                        |
    | flavor                               | m1.tiny (1)                                                |
    | hostId                               | bf3ce3c7146ba6cafd43be03886de8755e2b5c8e9f71aa9bfafde9a0   |
    | id                                   | b6d8a3c4-9674-4972-9151-11107b60d622                       |
    | image                                | cirros-0.3.2-x86_64 (b69ab3bd-2bbc-4086-b4ae-f01d9f6b5078) |
    | key_name                             | -                                                          |
    | metadata                             | {}                                                         |
    | name                                 | testvm1                                                    |
    | os-extended-volumes:volumes_attached | []                                                         |
    | progress                             | 0                                                          |
    | security_groups                      | default                                                    |
    | status                               | ACTIVE                                                     |
    | tenant_id                            | 26778b0f745143c5a9b0c7e1a621bb80                           |
    | updated                              | 2017-01-13T13:50:39Z                                       |
    | user_id                              | 7efbea74c20a4eeabc00b7740aa4d353                           |
    +--------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+

The VM has been given a fixed IP of 10.28.0.13.  Let's look at the corresponding Neutron port:

    core@access-node$ neutron port-list
    +--------------------------------------+------+-------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
    | id                                   | name | mac_address       | fixed_ips                                                                                      |
    +--------------------------------------+------+-------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
    | 656b3617-570d-473e-a5dd-90b61cb0c49f |      | fa:16:3e:4d:d5:25 |                                                                                                |
    | 9a7e0868-da7a-419e-a7ad-9d37e11091b8 |      | fa:16:3e:28:a9:a4 | {"subnet_id": "0a1221f2-e6ed-413d-a040-62a266bd0d8f", "ip_address": "10.28.0.13"}              |
    |                                      |      |                   | {"subnet_id": "345fec2e-6493-44de-a489-97b755c16dd4", "ip_address": "fd5f:5d21:845:1c2e:2::d"} |
    | a4b26bcc-ba94-4033-a9fc-edaf151c0c20 |      | fa:16:3e:74:46:bd |                                                                                                |
    | a772a5e1-2f13-4fc3-96d5-fa1c29717637 |      | fa:16:3e:c9:c6:8f |                                                                                                |
    +--------------------------------------+------+-------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Adding a service IP to the Neutron port as an extra fixed IP
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now we want to set up a service IP - let's say `10.28.0.23` - that
initially points to that VM, `testvm1`.  One way to do that is to add the
service IP as a second 'fixed IP' on the Neutron port:

    core@access-node$ neutron port-update --fixed-ip subnet_id=0a1221f2-e6ed-413d-a040-62a266bd0d8f,ip_address=10.28.0.13 --fixed-ip subnet_id=0a1221f2-e6ed-413d-a040-62a266bd0d8f,ip_address=10.28.0.23 9a7e0868-da7a-419e-a7ad-9d37e11091b8
    Updated port: 9a7e0868-da7a-419e-a7ad-9d37e11091b8

    core@access-node$ neutron port-show 9a7e0868-da7a-419e-a7ad-9d37e11091b8
    +-----------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
    | Field                 | Value                                                                             |
    +-----------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
    | admin_state_up        | True                                                                              |
    | allowed_address_pairs |                                                                                   |
    | binding:host_id       | neil-fv-0-ubuntu-kilo-compute-node01                                              |
    | binding:profile       | {}                                                                                |
    | binding:vif_details   | {"port_filter": true, "mac_address": "00:61:fe:ed:ca:fe"}                         |
    | binding:vif_type      | tap                                                                               |
    | binding:vnic_type     | normal                                                                            |
    | device_id             | b6d8a3c4-9674-4972-9151-11107b60d622                                              |
    | device_owner          | compute:None                                                                      |
    | extra_dhcp_opts       |                                                                                   |
    | fixed_ips             | {"subnet_id": "0a1221f2-e6ed-413d-a040-62a266bd0d8f", "ip_address": "10.28.0.13"} |
    |                       | {"subnet_id": "0a1221f2-e6ed-413d-a040-62a266bd0d8f", "ip_address": "10.28.0.23"} |
    | id                    | 9a7e0868-da7a-419e-a7ad-9d37e11091b8                                              |
    | mac_address           | fa:16:3e:28:a9:a4                                                                 |
    | name                  |                                                                                   |
    | network_id            | 60651076-af2a-4c6d-8d64-500b53a4e547                                              |
    | security_groups       | 75fccd0a-ef3d-44cd-91ec-ef22941f50f5                                              |
    | status                | ACTIVE                                                                            |
    | tenant_id             | 26778b0f745143c5a9b0c7e1a621bb80                                                  |
    +-----------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Now look at local IP routes, and we see that we have a route to `10.28.0.23`:

    core@access-node$ ip r
    default via 10.240.0.1 dev eth0  proto static  metric 100
    10.28.0.13 via 192.168.8.3 dev l2tpeth8-1  proto bird
    10.28.0.23 via 192.168.8.3 dev l2tpeth8-1  proto bird
    [...]

Note that, on the machine where we're running these commands:

- BIRD is running, peered with the BIRDs that Calico runs on each compute node.
  That is what causes VM routes (including `10.28.0.23`) to appear here.

- 192.168.8.3 is the IP of the compute node that is hosting `testvm1`.

We can also double check that `10.28.0.23` has appeared as a local device
route on the relevant compute node:

    core@access-node$ ssh core@192.168.8.3 ip r
    default via 10.240.0.1 dev eth0
    10.28.0.13 dev tap9a7e0868-da  scope link
    10.28.0.23 dev tap9a7e0868-da  scope link
    10.240.0.1 dev eth0  scope link
    192.168.8.0/24 dev l2tpeth8-3  proto kernel  scope link  src 192.168.8.3
    192.168.122.0/24 dev virbr0  proto kernel  scope link  src 192.168.122.1

We also need - because with this approach, data that is addressed to
`10.28.0.23` will be routed to the VM without any NAT - to tell the VM
itself that it has the extra `10.28.0.23` address:

    core@access-node$ ssh cirros@10.28.0.13
    cirros@10.28.0.13's password:
    $ ip a
    1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 16436 qdisc noqueue
        link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
        inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
        inet6 ::1/128 scope host
           valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast qlen 1000
        link/ether fa:16:3e:28:a9:a4 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
        inet 10.28.0.13/16 brd 10.28.255.255 scope global eth0
        inet6 fe80::f816:3eff:fe28:a9a4/64 scope link
           valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    $ sudo ip a a 10.28.0.23/16 dev eth0
    $ ip a
    1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 16436 qdisc noqueue
        link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
        inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
        inet6 ::1/128 scope host
           valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast qlen 1000
        link/ether fa:16:3e:28:a9:a4 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
        inet 10.28.0.13/16 brd 10.28.255.255 scope global eth0
        inet 10.28.0.23/16 scope global secondary eth0
        inet6 fe80::f816:3eff:fe28:a9a4/64 scope link
           valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    $ Connection to 10.28.0.13 closed.

And now we can access the VM on its service IP:

    core@access-node$ ssh cirros@10.28.0.23
    The authenticity of host '10.28.0.23 (10.28.0.23)' can't be established.
    RSA key fingerprint is 65:a5:b0:0c:e2:c4:ac:94:2a:0c:64:b8:bc:5a:aa:66.
    Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes

    Warning: Permanently added '10.28.0.23' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
    cirros@10.28.0.23's password:
    $

(Note that we already have security set up that allows SSH to the instance from
our access machine (`192.168.8.1`):

    core@access-node$ neutron security-group-list
    +--------------------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
    | id                                   | name    | security_group_rules                                                 |
    +--------------------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
    | 75fccd0a-ef3d-44cd-91ec-ef22941f50f5 | default | egress, IPv4                                                         |
    |                                      |         | egress, IPv6                                                         |
    |                                      |         | ingress, IPv4, 22/tcp, remote_ip_prefix: 192.168.8.1/32              |
    |                                      |         | ingress, IPv4, remote_group_id: 75fccd0a-ef3d-44cd-91ec-ef22941f50f5 |
    |                                      |         | ingress, IPv6, remote_group_id: 75fccd0a-ef3d-44cd-91ec-ef22941f50f5 |
    | 903d9936-ce72-4756-a2cc-7c95a846e7e5 | default | egress, IPv4                                                         |
    |                                      |         | egress, IPv6                                                         |
    |                                      |         | ingress, IPv4, 22/tcp, remote_ip_prefix: 192.168.8.1/32              |
    |                                      |         | ingress, IPv4, remote_group_id: 903d9936-ce72-4756-a2cc-7c95a846e7e5 |
    |                                      |         | ingress, IPv6, remote_group_id: 903d9936-ce72-4756-a2cc-7c95a846e7e5 |
    +--------------------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+

)

Moving the service IP to another VM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Service IPs are often used for HA, so need to be moved to target a different VM
if the first one fails for some reason (or if the HA system just decides to
cycle the active VM).

To demonstrate that we create a second test VM:

    core@access-node$ nova boot --flavor m1.tiny --image cirros-0.3.2-x86_64 --nic net-name=demo-net testvm2
    [...]
    core@access-node$ nova list
    +--------------------------------------+---------+--------+------------+-------------+----------------------------------------------+
    | ID                                   | Name    | Status | Task State | Power State | Networks                                     |
    +--------------------------------------+---------+--------+------------+-------------+----------------------------------------------+
    | b6d8a3c4-9674-4972-9151-11107b60d622 | testvm1 | ACTIVE | -          | Running     | demo-net=10.28.0.13, 10.28.0.23              |
    | bb4ef5e3-dc77-472e-af6f-3f0d8c3e5a6d | testvm2 | ACTIVE | -          | Running     | demo-net=10.28.0.14, fd5f:5d21:845:1c2e:2::e |
    +--------------------------------------+---------+--------+------------+-------------+----------------------------------------------+
    core@access-node$ neutron port-list
    +--------------------------------------+------+-------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
    | id                                   | name | mac_address       | fixed_ips                                                                                      |
    +--------------------------------------+------+-------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
    | 656b3617-570d-473e-a5dd-90b61cb0c49f |      | fa:16:3e:4d:d5:25 |                                                                                                |
    | 7627a298-a2db-4a1a-bc07-9f0f10f58363 |      | fa:16:3e:8e:dc:33 | {"subnet_id": "0a1221f2-e6ed-413d-a040-62a266bd0d8f", "ip_address": "10.28.0.14"}              |
    |                                      |      |                   | {"subnet_id": "345fec2e-6493-44de-a489-97b755c16dd4", "ip_address": "fd5f:5d21:845:1c2e:2::e"} |
    | 9a7e0868-da7a-419e-a7ad-9d37e11091b8 |      | fa:16:3e:28:a9:a4 | {"subnet_id": "0a1221f2-e6ed-413d-a040-62a266bd0d8f", "ip_address": "10.28.0.13"}              |
    |                                      |      |                   | {"subnet_id": "0a1221f2-e6ed-413d-a040-62a266bd0d8f", "ip_address": "10.28.0.23"}              |
    | a4b26bcc-ba94-4033-a9fc-edaf151c0c20 |      | fa:16:3e:74:46:bd |                                                                                                |
    | a772a5e1-2f13-4fc3-96d5-fa1c29717637 |      | fa:16:3e:c9:c6:8f |                                                                                                |
    +--------------------------------------+------+-------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Remove the service IP from the first VM:

    core@access-node$ neutron port-update --fixed-ip subnet_id=0a1221f2-e6ed-413d-a040-62a266bd0d8f,ip_address=10.28.0.13 9a7e0868-da7a-419e-a7ad-9d37e11091b8

And add it to the second:

    core@access-node$ neutron port-update --fixed-ip subnet_id=0a1221f2-e6ed-413d-a040-62a266bd0d8f,ip_address=10.28.0.14 --fixed-ip subnet_id=0a1221f2-e6ed-413d-a040-62a266bd0d8f,ip_address=10.28.0.23 7627a298-a2db-4a1a-bc07-9f0f10f58363

And tell `testvm2` that it now has the service IP `10.28.0.23`:

    core@access-node$ ssh cirros@10.28.0.14
    The authenticity of host '10.28.0.14 (10.28.0.14)' can't be established.
    RSA key fingerprint is 6a:02:7f:3a:bf:0c:91:de:c4:d6:e7:f6:81:3f:6a:85.
    Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes

    Warning: Permanently added '10.28.0.14' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
    cirros@10.28.0.14's password:
    $ sudo ip a a 10.28.0.23/16 dev eth0

Now connections to `10.28.0.23` go to `testvm2`:

    core@access-node$ ssh cirros@10.28.0.23
    @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
    @    WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED!     @
    @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
    IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING NASTY!
    Someone could be eavesdropping on you right now (man-in-the-middle attack)!
    It is also possible that a host key has just been changed.
    The fingerprint for the RSA key sent by the remote host is
    6a:02:7f:3a:bf:0c:91:de:c4:d6:e7:f6:81:3f:6a:85.
    Please contact your system administrator.
    Add correct host key in /home/core/.ssh/known_hosts to get rid of this message.
    Offending RSA key in /home/core/.ssh/known_hosts:4
    RSA host key for 10.28.0.23 has changed and you have requested strict checking.
    Host key verification failed.
    core@access-node$ rm ~/.ssh/known_hosts
    core@access-node$ ssh cirros@10.28.0.23
    The authenticity of host '10.28.0.23 (10.28.0.23)' can't be established.
    RSA key fingerprint is 6a:02:7f:3a:bf:0c:91:de:c4:d6:e7:f6:81:3f:6a:85.
    Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes

    Warning: Permanently added '10.28.0.23' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
    cirros@10.28.0.23's password:
    $ hostname
    testvm2
    $ ip a
    1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 16436 qdisc noqueue
        link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
        inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
        inet6 ::1/128 scope host
           valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast qlen 1000
        link/ether fa:16:3e:8e:dc:33 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
        inet 10.28.0.14/16 brd 10.28.255.255 scope global eth0
        inet 10.28.0.23/16 scope global secondary eth0
        inet6 fe80::f816:3eff:fe8e:dc33/64 scope link
           valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    $
