How to Use the Bring Your Own IP Feature

Objective

The Bring Your Own IP (BYOIP) feature allows you to use IP address ranges that you already own, as Additional IPs directly on the OVHcloud network and products.

These IP addresses will be imported in the form of a /24 IP block size and will behave like a regular OVHcloud Additional IP block product.

Requirements

• Your IP range must be in a supported RIR
• Your IP range must have a supported size
• Your IP range is not in use on the Internet
• Your IP/AS have a clean reputation
• You need to choose a campus
• You must prove ownership of the IP range
• You must prove ownership of the AS number
• You have to allow OVHcloud to announce the IP range

Your IP range must be in a supported RIR

A Regional Internet registry (RIR) is an organization that manages IP addresses in a given region.

You need to own (see below) a public IPv4 block with the following RIR:

• ARIN

An ARIN block can only be used with OVHcloud services located in the USA.

To be considered as a valid owned block, imported blocks must be one of the following types :

• ARIN (object «Network type »)
  • Direct Allocation
  • Direct Assignment

See https://www.arin.net/resources/registry/whois/#network and https://www.arin.net/resources/registry/reassignments/ for more information on Net Types objects.

Your IP range must have a supported size

We accept IP blocks from size /24 up to size /19. Below, is the number of /24 you will receive from the imported range:

Your IP range is not in use on the Internet

The range must not be announced or in use on the Internet (no announcement in terms of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) on at least one public network). You are free not to meet this prerequisite, in which case OVHcloud will not be able to ensure the proper functioning and support of this service.

Your IP/AS have a clean reputation

We may refuse to use IPs/AS with a bad reputation, and we reserve the right to stop announcing the IPs/AS if their reputation has a negative impact on OVHcloud’s reputation.

You need to choose a campus

A campus can be viewed as a list of datacenters where an IP can be used.

You will need to choose one campus where your IP will be used. Once the delivery is done, you will be able to move any /24 size block obtained from the imported range to any OVHcloud services in the same campus as the one chosen at order time.

Below is a list of current campuses:

• VIN (Vint Hill)
  • vin1
• HIL (Hillsboro)
  • hil1

The list of available campuses will depend on your geographical location, and on the RIR of the IP. Below are listed all IP campuses where we plan to launch the BYOIP product. However, note that not all campuses may be supported at launch:

You must prove ownership of the IP range

To prove that you are the owner of the range, you will be requested to enter a special token which we will provide, into the public whois object corresponding to your range. This will be done via the web portal of the RIR managing your IPs. This token will be provided at order.

• For ARIN, edit the « Public Comments » field of the « Network » object.

The token needs to appears in the description field (see above) of the whois object, in a dedicated line. Other lines may be present, as long as the token is present in its own dedicated line in the description. The token must be added before placing the order, and must not be removed until the end of the delivery process.

You must prove ownership of the AS number (required only if you provide an AS number)

To prove that you are the owner of the AS number, you will be required to reuse the same token previously used to prove ownership of the IP range, and insert it into the public whois object corresponding to the AS number. This will be done via the web portal of the RIR managing your AS number. This token will be provided at order (it may also be found directly in the OVHcloud Control Panel, in the IP section).

• For ARIN, edit the « Public Comments » field of the « ASN » object.

The token needs to appears in the description field (see above) of the whois object, in a dedicated line. Other lines may be present, as long as the token is present in its own dedicated line in the description. The token must be added before placing the order, and must not be removed until the end of the delivery process.

You have to allow OVHcloud to announce the IP range

On the RIR where the IP range is registered, you will need to create a route object for it (matching exactly the IP range), with the OVHcloud AS number (“AS16276”) or your own AS number in the origin field of the route object.

For more information on route objects, please refer to your RIR’s documentation page :

• ARIN - Submitting Routing Information

Instructions

How to use the product

The imported IPs will behave like the current Additional IP product. An imported IP range will be split into /24 blocks that will be movable to any service on the same campus.

To activate the announcement of your imported IP range on the Internet, simply assign one of your blocks to an eligible product via the control panel or the OVHcloud API.

Be aware that a specific access-control list will be put in place during the BYOIP service delivery process. These access control lists aim at preventing IP spoofing, they will block any traffic from the OVHcloud network to any IP address of your IP range located on an external network and from any address of your IP range located on an external network to the OVHcloud network, even if BGP announcement is not yet activated from the OVHcloud side.

If your migration may be impacted by this process, please contact us and we will assist you.

During the delivery, we will create ARPA zones on our DNS servers and any reverse DNS modification via the OVHcloud Control Panel/API will be applied to them. However, these modifications will be visible to the public when our DNS servers receive delegations of the ARPA zones by the RIR. (This is optional, if you want to continue managing your reverse DNS on your own, you can).

Range slicing

Any imported IP block can be further split into smaller blocks and/or individual addresses.

To slice a block, use the following API call :

Use the following parameters:

• ip: the IP block you want to slice, in CIDR notation.
• slicingSize: the resulting size of the sliced blocks, expressed as a network prefix size, in bits. For example, if you want to slice a /24 block into two smaller blocks of size /25, you should enter the value "25".

You can preview the resulting blocks that would be created for each block size, by using the following API call:

Use the following parameters:

• ip: the IP block you want to slice, in CIDR notation.

To merge back a block into a parent block, use this API call :

• ip: the IP block you want to slice, in CIDR notation.
• aggregationIp: the resulting block, in CIDR notation.

The resulting block will be an aggregate of all its children blocks.

You can preview all the possible configurations of aggregated blocks for a given IP block, by using the following API call:

Use the following parameters:

• ip: the IP block you want to merge into a parent block, in CIDR notation.

This call returns a list of possible aggregated blocks and, for each one of them, gives the list of children blocks to be merged back.

Limitations:

• This feature is currently available via API only. It will be added to the OVHcloud Control Panel in the near future.
• Configuration elements associated with individual IP addresses (/32) such as firewall rules or reverse DNS entries will be kept after slicing/merging operations.
• Slice/Aggregate API tasks cannot be followed up by the asynchronous task number returned by API, as associated IP objects will be destroyed in the slice/aggregate process.
• The listing of IP addresses and blocks returned by API is ordered by network prefix size. We are working to provide a solution to list IPs in numerical order.
• Once sliced, smaller blocks are not movable outside the campus chosen during the order of the product.
• Moving a /24 block across US campuses won't work if :
  • It has been reaggregated from a previous slicing.
  • The /24 block was imported from a bigger block (/23 to /19).

FAQ

Is it possible to import an IP range lower than a /24?

• No, the minimum accepted size is a /24.

Is it possible to import an IP range bigger than a /19?

• Not at product launch, but feel free to contact us to discuss this.

Is splitting the imported /24 into smaller block size (/25, /26, /27, /28, /29 /30) or into /32 supported?

• Yes, please see the Range slicing section for more details.

Can I import an ARIN range in campuses accepting only RIPE ranges, and vice-versa?

• Not for the moment.

Can I import an ARIN AS number with a RIPE IP range, and vice-versa?

• Yes.

Can I import an IP range or AS number managed by APNIC/AFRINIC/LACNIC?

• Not for the moment.

Is it possible to use an IP range on more than one campus?

• No, an IP range must be used in only one campus.

Is changing the campus of an imported IP possible?

• It is not possible to change the campus of an imported IP range. To achieve this you would have to release the product and purchase it again.

How will I know which OVHcloud DNS servers will handle the ARPA zone for my imported IP?

• Their names will be communicated in the delivery email.

Is it possible to import an IPv6?

• Not for the moment.

Can I order the service while I still have my IP range announced from another site?

• Yes, but once the BYOIP service has been delivered, you must immediately cancel the announcement from the other site, as you risk connectivity issues with any services hosted at OVHcloud. In this case, OVHcloud cannot be held responsible.