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Getting started with subnets and IPs

Getting started with subnets and IPs

IBM Cloud® offers three types of subnets, with each type providing IP addresses to resources in different ways. A brief description of their capabilities and distinct lifecycles follows.

  • Primary subnets - Automatically assigned to meet the IP addressing needs of other services, such as bare metal servers and virtual server instances. These subnets are automatically assigned and removed by IBM Cloud.
  • Secondary subnets - Purchased and routed by you, and canceled when no longer needed. There are two routing options:
    • Portable - IP addresses are available to all resources on a VLAN.
    • Static - IP addresses are available to the resource identified as the routing endpoint.
  • Global IP addresses - Unique routing behavior that uses IBM Cloud's backbone, which provides IP addresses to the resource identified as the routing endpoint.

Review each type in detail at About subnets and IPs to learn about aspects such as IPv4 versus IPv6 and public versus private network availability.

Before you begin

Ensure you have the "Add/Upgrade Services" permission, which is set through the IBM Cloud IAM users permissions panel.

Ordering secondary subnets

Take the following steps to order a secondary subnet.

  1. Determine what type of secondary subnet you need.
  2. Order a secondary subnet. See Ordering secondary subnets and IPs for details about ordering secondary subnets with different types and routing options.

Next steps

A new subnet with your configuration appears on your account within a few minutes and is viewable in the subnets list page. For information on how to manage global IP addresses, see Working with global IP addresses. For information on how to route and unroute secondary subnets, see Re-routing secondary subnets.