Elastic IP Overview

Elastic IP (EIP) is a public IP address that is fixed in a certain region and can be purchased and owned independently. EIP can be bound to CVM, NAT gateway, ENI, and BMS, providing the ability to access and be accessed by the public network.

EIP can be decoupled from the lifecycle of cloud resources and operated independently. For example, if you need to keep a public IP address that is closely related to your business, you can convert the ordinary public IP address to an EIP and keep it in your account.

Difference Between EIP and Ordinary Public IP

A public IP address is a non-reserved address on the Internet. A cloud server with a public IP address can access other computers on the Internet.
Both ordinary public IP and EIP are public IP addresses, and both can provide CVM with the ability to access and be accessed by the public network.

• EIP: A public IP address resource that can be purchased and held independently and can be bound or unbound to CVM, NAT gateway, ENI, and BMS at any time.
• Ordinary Public IP: It can only be allocated when purchasing CVM and cannot be unbound from the cloud server. If it is not allocated when purchasing, it cannot be obtained.
  Compared with the ordinary public IP of CVM, EIP provides more flexible management methods, as shown in the following table. For details, see Public IPv4 Address.

Strengths

Flexible

EIP is an independent public IP resource that belongs to your cloud platform account rather than any cloud resource. It can be bound and unbound to CVM, NAT gateway, ENI, BMS, etc., at any time and can be used flexibly and take effect in real time.

Easy to Operate

EIP supports on-demand purchases, configuration changes take effect in real time, and can be managed and operated through a variety of methods, such as the console and Cloud API.