Routing

When connecting a client infrastructure via Yandex Cloud Interconnect, you will typically need to set up traffic routing between the cloud resources and client infrastructure resources.

By routing, we mean a number of tools for traffic management in Yandex Cloud.

General best practices for Cloud Interconnect routingGeneral best practices for Cloud Interconnect routing

• Carefully plan your IP addressing before deploying your cloud resources. The IP addressing of Yandex Cloud subnets and those in the client infrastructure must not overlap.

• Always set up two channels for connecting via two points of presence.

• To simplify the setup of fault-tolerant BGP routing on client routers, consider using the same BGP ASN if multiple routers are used on the client side for connecting to Cloud Interconnect. You can use different BGP ASNs, e.g., when arranging connections via telecom providers. Keep in mind that Yandex Cloud is not responsible for configuring the client and telecom provider network hardware.

• Each client router that sets BGP connectivity with the Yandex Cloud equipment over eBGP should also set BGP connectivity with other client routers over iBGP.

• Use prefixes of a different length on client routers for BGP announcements to distribute outgoing traffic from cloud subnets across communication circuits:

  • Prefix with a length of /8 (short prefix) means the lowest route priority.
  • Prefix with a length of /32 (long prefix) means the highest route priority.

• When selecting a communication circuit for outgoing traffic from the client infrastructure to cloud networks on a client router, you can use such option as a standard BGP attribute named Local Preference.

• You can use Cloud Interconnect along with a NAT gateway if client routers do not announce the 0.0.0.0/0 default route over BGP to Yandex Cloud. If client routers do announce the 0.0.0.0/0 default route over BGP to Yandex Cloud, you cannot use a NAT gateway.

• Currently, Yandex Cloud does not support distribution of outgoing traffic from cloud subnets to the client infrastructure based on the BGP community method.

Even traffic distribution (Active-Active)Even traffic distribution (Active-Active)

The example below shows even traffic distribution using two private connections set up through two points of presence.

The client infrastructure prefix, 10.0.0.0/8, is announced over BGP by client routers through two points of presence towards Yandex Cloud. Yandex Cloud will ensure ECMP load balancing and distribute traffic across the points of presence.

Such a balancing mode may lead to asymmetric traffic. For example, a request from the client infrastructure to cloud resources can be received through the M9 point of presence, while the response will be sent through NORD.

Traffic asymmetry is allowed and handled correctly on the Yandex Cloud equipment, but may not be supported by certain types of equipment in the client infrastructure, such as firewalls.

To allow asymmetric traffic from Yandex Cloud, disable RPF on the network elements handling traffic in the client infrastructure. This will enable you to use all active Cloud Interconnect connections with a redundant connection through two or more points of presence.

Prioritizing traffic by direction (Active-Standby)Prioritizing traffic by direction (Active-Standby)

To prioritize traffic by direction in Cloud Interconnect, you can use the following methods:

• Longest Prefix Match (LPM)
• BGP AS-Path Prepend

The longest prefix match method has a higher priority than BGP AS path prepending when it comes to the algorithm for selecting the best route on routers. We recommend that you only choose one of the suggested methods rather than use both at the same time.

Longest prefix match (LPM) methodLongest prefix match (LPM) method

Below, you can see an example of prioritizing traffic through two private connections set up via two points of presence with the longest prefix match method.

A short prefix from the client infrastructure, 10.0.0.0/8, is announced over BGP by a client router via the NORD point of presence to Yandex Cloud.

Two long (more specific) prefixes from the client infrastructure, 10.0.0.0/9 and 10.128.0.0/9, are announced over BGP by a client router via the M9 point of presence to Yandex Cloud.

Yandex Cloud will treat announcements via M9 as more specific ones, i.e., of higher priority.

This way, for all traffic from the 172.16.1.0/24, 172.16.2.0/24, and 172.16.3.0/24 cloud subnets to the client infrastructure, the system will select the private connection to M9. If this connection fails, the traffic will be automatically switched over to the private connection to NORD.

BGP AS path prepend methodBGP AS path prepend method

Below, you can see an example of prioritizing traffic through two private connections set up via two points of presence with the BGP AS path prepend method.

You can learn more about BGP AS path prepending here.

The 10.0.0.0/8 prefix is announced from the client infrastructure over BGP by a client router (R1) via the M9 point of presence to Yandex Cloud. The default BGP AS-Path attribute value will be 65001, while the AS path length (amount of autonomous system number values) will be 1.

The same prefix (10.0.0.0/8) is announced from the client infrastructure over BGP by another client router (R2) via the NORD point of presence to Yandex Cloud.

Before announcing the prefix, the BGP routing policy on the R2 router adds the client's autonomous system number (BGP ASN) to the AS-Path BGP attribute value so that it will be equal to 65001 65001 and the AS path length will be 2. This update makes the prefix with the resulting AS path length less preferable for external BGP routers.

This way, the best route via M9 will be selected on the Yandex Cloud side for the 10.0.0.0/8 prefix, while the route via NORD will be a backup one, as its AS path is longer.

For all traffic from the 172.16.1.0/24, 172.16.2.0/24, and 172.16.3.0/24 cloud subnets to the client infrastructure, the system will select the private connection to M9. If this connection fails, the traffic will be automatically switched over to the private connection to NORD.

Traffic reservation through VPN gatewayTraffic reservation through VPN gateway

You can use a VPN gateway to make the Cloud Interconnect connection failsafe. For example, this might be an option when you cannot set up two physical channels via two points of presence to ensure a fault-tolerant connection of the client infrastructure to Yandex Cloud.

Two long prefixes from the client infrastructure, 10.0.0.0/9 and 10.128.0.0/9, are announced over BGP by a client router via M9 point of presence to Yandex Cloud.

A backup connection from Yandex Cloud to the client infrastructure is set up by deploying a VPN gateway with IPSEC support in the ru-central1-b availability zone and setting up static routing in the VPC network.

For each subnet with cloud resources in all three availability zones, one uses a single route table with the static route (prefix): 10.0.0.0/8 via 172.16.2.10. Since this /8 route (prefix) is shorter than the /9 prefixes announced over BGP, it will have a lower priority while the Cloud Interconnect connection is running.

If the Cloud Interconnect connection fails, the longer /9 prefixes will be removed from the cloud network and the entire traffic to the client infrastructure will be automatically routed via the shorter /8 prefix using a static route to the VPN gateway.

Static route priorityStatic route priority

To set up traffic from the cloud network via a VPN gateway for a separate prefix while using the Cloud Interconnect connection for the remaining traffic, you can do the following:

A short prefix from the client infrastructure, 10.0.0.0/8, is announced over BGP by a client router via the M9 point of presence to Yandex Cloud.

A long prefix from the client infrastructure, 10.10.10.0/24, is set up using a static route table to transmit traffic to the VPN gateway with the 172.16.2.10 IP address deployed in the ru-central1-b availability zone.

This way, all traffic from the cloud network to the 10.0.0.0/8 client infrastructure will be transmitted via the Cloud Interconnect connection, while the traffic heading to the 10.10.10.0/24 subnet will run through the VPN gateway.

Even traffic distribution for the 0.0.0.0/0 routeEven traffic distribution for the 0.0.0.0/0 route

In some cases, for example, to connect cloud resources to the internet via the client infrastructure, you need to set up 0.0.0.0/0 route announcement over BGP to Yandex Cloud.

The flowchart above shows how the traffic from cloud subnets connected to Cloud Interconnect is unconditionally routed to client routers through both points of presence.

Security groups cannot be assigned to resources outside Yandex Cloud; therefore, the correct way to filter traffic is to use IPv4 prefixes rather than links to other security groups.
In this case, the customer can configure traffic filtering rules on client routers before sending it to the internet via their own NAT gateway without using the Yandex Cloud infrastructure.

Prioritizing traffic by direction for 0.0.0.0/0Prioritizing traffic by direction for 0.0.0.0/0

To prioritize traffic by direction in Cloud Interconnect, you can use the following methods:

• Longest Prefix Match (LPM)
• BGP AS path prepending

The longest prefix match method has a higher priority than BGP AS path prepending when it comes to the algorithm for selecting the best route on routers. We recommend that you only choose one of the suggested methods rather than use both at the same time.

Longest prefix match (LPM) methodLongest prefix match (LPM) method

The example below shows how the traffic is prioritized using two private connections set up through two points of presence.

The default route from the client infrastructure, 0.0.0.0/0, is announced over BGP by a client router via the NORD point of presence to Yandex Cloud.

Two long (more specific) prefixes from the client infrastructure, 0.0.0.0/1 and 128.0.0.0/1, are announced over BGP by a client router via the M9 point of presence to Yandex Cloud.

Yandex Cloud will treat announcements via M9 as more specific ones, i.e., of higher priority.

This way, for all traffic from the cloud subnets, the system will select the private connection to M9. If this connection fails, traffic will be automatically switched over to the private connection to NORD.

BGP AS path prepend methodBGP AS path prepend method

Below, you can see an example of prioritizing traffic through two private connections set up via two points of presence with the BGP AS path prepend method.

You can learn more about BGP AS path prepending here.

The default route from the client infrastructure (0.0.0.0/0) is announced over BGP by a client router via the M9 point of presence to Yandex Cloud. The default BGP AS-Path attribute value will be 65001, while the AS path length (amount of autonomous system number values) will be 1.

The same prefix (0.0.0.0/0) is announced from the client infrastructure over BGP by another client router (R2) via the NORD point of presence to Yandex Cloud.

Before announcing the prefix, the BGP routing policy on the R2 router adds the client's autonomous system number (BGP ASN) to the AS-Path BGP attribute value so that it will be equal to 65001 65001 and the AS path length will be 2. This update makes the prefix with the resulting AS path length less preferable for external BGP routers.

This way, the best route via M9 will be selected on the Yandex Cloud side for the 0.0.0.0/0 prefix, while the route via NORD will be a backup one, as its AS path is longer.

For all traffic from the cloud subnets to the client infrastructure, the system will select the private connection to M9. If this connection fails, the traffic will be automatically switched over to the private connection to NORD.

Working with security groupsWorking with security groups

Security groups are used to protect Yandex Cloud resources and cannot be used for filtering traffic outside Yandex Cloud.

Security group rules should be set up for the prefixes announced by client routers to Yandex Cloud. For example, to allow access from the client infrastructure to a web application (port 443) deployed in Yandex Cloud, set up a security group as follows:

ingress {
      protocol       = "TCP"
      port           = 443
      description    = "Allow ingress traffic from Interconnect to Web server"
      v4_cidr_blocks = ["172.16.1.5/32"]
    }
egress {
      protocol       = "ANY"
      description    = "We allow any egress traffic"
      v4_cidr_blocks = ["10.0.0.0/8"]
    }

The Egress security group rule allows any cloud resources to access resources in the client infrastructure on any port without any restriction.

If required, you can use more granular rules to only allow access to specific IP addresses or subnets and ports:

ingress {
      protocol       = "TCP"
      port           = 443
      description    = "Allow ingress traffic from Interconnect to Web server"
      v4_cidr_blocks = ["172.16.1.5/32"]
    }
egress {
      protocol       = "TCP"
      port           = 3389
      description    = "Allow RDP traffic to server behind Interconnect"
      v4_cidr_blocks = ["10.10.10.10/32"]
    }