Full of black technology: Analysis of UCloud's new generation VPC features

Recently, a basic service failure of an overseas cloud vendor caused a large number of Internet companies to be affected. The mobile entrance of a domestic portal was interrupted for dozens of minutes during the evening peak, which even attracted the attention of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The high availability of Internet services has always been a delicate job, requiring a high technical threshold.

The following scenarios are believed to have been encountered by many operation and maintenance engineers:

Scenario A: Re-planning of VPC intranet address segments

After using VPC for a period of time, there are not enough IP addresses. Creating another VPC is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and redeploying the business also brings pressure.

Scenario B: Migrate cloud hosts across availability zones

The host of the business environment has been deployed and needs to be migrated to another availability zone. However, for the sake of business continuity, the IP address cannot be changed. Is there a simple and reliable method?

Scenario C : Disaster recovery deployment across availability zones

We hope to achieve high availability of services across availability zones and deploy the same business environment in two IDCs, but the applications are already coupled to IPs. At the same time, it will take time to achieve application layer load balancing. What should we do?

On Monday, February 27, UCloud launched the next generation VPC in the second region of Shanghai. It is said that it has many dazzling new features and is the only tool to achieve high availability of business, save operation and maintenance colleagues, and refuse to be the scapegoat. Please follow the editor to learn more.

1. The most flexible way to customize network segments in the industry

After using VPC for a while, the IP addresses are insufficient. Now all cloud vendors' practice is to create another VPC, because the existing VPC does not allow the addition of new network segments. After creating a new VPC, you also need to connect the two VPCs, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive. This is obviously not the solution that users want. This time, UCloud allows you to freely add new network segments in the existing VPC, as long as they do not overlap with existing addresses. In this way, users have an inexhaustible and expandable VPC address pool.

In addition, UCloud VPC also provides the most flexible network segment size definition, ranging from the large A segment of 10.0.0.0/8 to the mini segment of 10.0.0.0/29, which can be flexibly set according to your needs.

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Figure 1: The most flexible network segment customization in the industry

2. Industry's First Cross-Availability Zone Subnet

Many users prefer to deploy resources across availability zones in VPC because of its stronger disaster recovery capabilities. However, when a host is migrated across availability zones, the intranet address will definitely change. What's going on?

Because in the current mainstream VPC technology solutions, there are restrictions on the distribution of subnets and availability zones: a single subnet can only belong to a specific availability zone; different availability zones must have different subnet segments.

For example, a user creates subnet 1 in availability zone A with a network segment of 10.88.0.0/16. If a second subnet is then created in availability zone B, its network segment must be different, such as 10.99.0.0/16. However, this will cause inconvenience to management. When migrating to another availability zone for business planning, disaster recovery, etc., the intranet address must change, resulting in the inability to transparently switch services, which requires additional effort such as domain name resolution to solve the problem.

To solve this pain point, UCloud has provided the industry's first subnet cross-availability zone capability. The barriers between subnets and availability zones have been broken, and subnets can span multiple availability zones. From now on, users' hosts can retain the original intranet configuration and migrate freely between different availability zones.

Figure 2: Subnets across availability zones

3. Exclusive VIP products support cross-zone use

VIP (Virtual IP) is a driftable virtual IP, usually configured on multiple nodes. When a node fails, VIP can drift to another node, thereby achieving disaster recovery of the service. However, for a long time, VIP, as a classic disaster recovery method, can only be configured and implemented by users themselves, and cloud vendors do not provide support. UCloud released the VIP product in 2014, and it is still the industry exclusive. Users can use UCloud's VIP service to quickly and easily achieve business disaster recovery. For example (+ WeChat to follow the Internet World), Dada has deployed multiple physical machines and cloud host resources on UCloud, and supports the high availability of its business through VIP.

Previously, VIP was limited to use in a single availability zone, but this VPC release removes this restriction. Users can configure VIP on multiple hosts in multiple availability zones, thereby building cross-availability zone high availability covering physical cloud and public cloud [Note]. Compared with high availability in a single availability zone, it can greatly improve the robustness of the business. Taking the following figure as an example, VIP is configured on the physical cloud host and public cloud host in availability zone A, as well as the physical cloud host in availability zone B, to achieve a high level of high availability.

Figure 3: VIP usage across availability zones

4. VPC connectivity covering hybrid cloud[Note]

VPC provides the ability to isolate each other, but sometimes different VPCs need to be connected for business needs. UCloud also provides VPC intercommunication function, users can configure the interconnection between multiple VPCs according to the matrix design.

It is worth mentioning that as a leading provider of hybrid cloud solutions, VPC connectivity also includes managed cloud. VPC can be connected to managed networks, and no matter how the network is introduced, it can provide automated connectivity solutions.

In addition, "project" is UCloud's unique design for resource management. A project contains resources composed of multiple cloud products. The resources between multiple projects are isolated from each other by network. Each project can be configured with different access rights at the sub-account granularity to help users strengthen risk control and reduce hidden dangers. Projects can also be connected to each other when needed.

VPC connectivity and project connectivity provide users with two different dimensions, which can be used separately or in combination as needed to form isolation and connectivity solutions covering public clouds, physical clouds, and hybrid clouds.

5. Smooth evolution and continuous operation

On February 27, the new version of VPC was opened to all users in UCloud Shanghai Region 2. It will be gradually opened in Guangdong, Beijing and other regions in the future.

This opening still follows UCloud's concept of "smooth evolution and continuous operation", allowing users to access new product features seamlessly and without problems. For example, the regions and availability zones released in 2016 have achieved seamless upgrades for all existing users. The new VPC feature release also covers existing users through in-place upgrades. The user's original basic network will be upgraded in-place to a new VPC network, the original network configuration will be inherited, and users can also use the new features introduced above. This approach protects the value of users to the greatest extent.

Summarize

As one of the earliest cloud computing [note] vendors in China to use SDN [note] technology to build VPC networks, UCloud will continue to work hard to innovate and continuously evolve and enrich VPC products to create a more complete VPC ecosystem for users.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.