Fix private ip on container instance with non http/https ports

Question

Fix private ip on container instance with non http/https ports

Guillaume LOR 40

We have a RabbitMQ running on a container instance in Switzerland North Azure Region. The container instance is in a delegated subnet that has the container instance. The issue we face is that every time we restart or redeploy the container, its IP address changes.

We tested Azure Load Balancer but it is not supported by ACI. We also tried using Application Gateway, but it only supports port redirection on HTTP/HTTPS, and we need to route AMQP over TLS/SSL for messaging on port 5671. We saw that setting up a private DNS zone could potentially work, but it risks conflicting with other DNS zones we own, so we set that aside.

Is there a Microsoft solution available to solve the problem of changing private IP addresses of a container instance in a Virtual Network that doesn't just pass through HTTP/HTTPS ports?

Prrudram-MSFT 28,506 Reputation points Moderator

2023-07-24T09:43:50.7033333+00:00
Hi @Guillaume LOR

There is a Microsoft solution available to solve the problem of changing private IP addresses of a container instance in a Virtual Network that doesn't just pass through HTTP/HTTPS ports. You can use Azure Traffic Manager to create a DNS-based load balancer that can route traffic to your RabbitMQ container instance based on the DNS name.

Here are the high-level steps to set up Azure Traffic Manager for your RabbitMQ container instance:

Create a Traffic Manager profile in the same resource group as your RabbitMQ container instance.

Configure the Traffic Manager profile to use the "Performance" routing method and add the IP addresses of your RabbitMQ container instance as endpoints.

Create a CNAME record in your DNS zone that points to the Traffic Manager DNS name.

Use the CNAME record to connect to your RabbitMQ container instance instead of the IP address.

By using Azure Traffic Manager, you can create a DNS-based load balancer that can route traffic to your RabbitMQ container instance based on the DNS name. This allows you to avoid the issue of changing private IP addresses of the container instance.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.
Guillaume Lor 0 Reputation points

2023-07-24T13:31:56.7166667+00:00
Hello @Prrudram-MSFT

Thank you for your answer, looking a little closer at the Traffic manager service I have a few questions about this:

is it possible to put range of IP addresses on the output of Azure Traffic manager ? since Azure container instance can take several ip addresses (subnet in/29 to limit the number of possibilities) and it automatically retrieves the current aci address?

By wanting to create one for testing, I can’t choose the location (eastus), unfortunately we have a constraint to use only the services available in northern Switzerland, Is there something I misunderstood or is this service just not available in this region?

Thanking you in advance :)
Prrudram-MSFT 28,506 Reputation points Moderator

2023-08-07T18:28:22.1766667+00:00

@Guillaume LOR

I believe Azure Traffic Manager does not directly support specifying a range of IP addresses as endpoints. Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based load balancer that directs client requests to the appropriate Azure service endpoint based on the configured traffic routing method. It primarily works with DNS records to distribute traffic, not with IP address ranges.

If you're looking to route traffic to Azure Container Instances (ACI) with specific IP addresses, you might need to explore other solutions. One approach could be using a load balancer or application gateway in front of your ACI instances, where you can control the IP addresses and routing rules more directly.