Local VCN Peering using Local Peering Gateways
This topic is about local VCN peering. In this case, local means that the VCNs reside in the same region. If the VCNs are in different regions, see Remote VCN Peering using a Legacy DRG.
Local peering gateways are still supported. This scenario assumes you are using a legacy DRG. Oracle currently recommends routing traffic from one VCN to another through an upgraded DRG as described in Local VCN Peering Through an Upgraded DRG.
Overview of Local VCN Peering
Local VCN peering is the process of connecting two VCNs in the same region so that their resources can communicate using private IP addresses without routing the traffic over the internet or through your on-premises network. The VCNs can be in the same Oracle Cloud Infrastructure tenancy or different ones. Without peering, a given VCN would need an internet gateway and public IP addresses for the instances that need to communicate with another VCN.
See Gateway Limits and Requesting a Service Limit Increase for limits-related information.
For more information, see Access to Other VCNs: Peering.
Summary of Networking Components for Peering using an LPG
At a high level, the Networking service components required for a local peering include:
- Two VCNs with non-overlapping CIDRs, in the same region
- A local peering gateway (LPG) on each VCN in the peering relationship.
- A connection between those two LPGs.
- Supporting route rules to enable traffic to flow over the connection, and only to and from select subnets in the respective VCNs (if wanted).
- Supporting security rules to control the types of traffic allowed to and from the instances in the subnets that need to communicate with the other VCN.
The following diagram illustrates the components.
A given VCN can use the peered LPGs to reach these resources:
- VNICs in the other VCN
- An on-premises network attached to the other VCN, if an advanced routing scenario called transit routing has been set up for the VCNs
A VCN can't use its peered VCN to reach other destinations outside of the VCNs (such as the internet). For example, if VCN-1 in the preceding diagram were to have an internet gateway, the instances in VCN-2 couldn't use it to send traffic to endpoints on the internet. However, VCN-2 could receive traffic from the internet by way of VCN-1. For more information, see Important Implications of VCN Peering.
Explicit Agreement Required from Both Sides
Peering involves two VCNs that might be owned by the same party or two different ones. The two parties might both be in your company but in different departments. Or the two parties might be in entirely different companies (for example, in a service-provider model).
Peering between two VCNs requires explicit agreement from both parties in the form of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Identity and Access Management policies that each party implements for their own VCN's compartment or tenancy. If the VCNs are in different tenancies, each administrator must provide their tenancy OCID and put in place special policy statements to enable the peering.
Advanced Scenario: Transit Routing
The advanced routing scenario called transit routing enables communication between an on-premises network and multiple VCNs over a single Oracle Cloud Infrastructure FastConnect or Site-to-Site VPN. The VCNs must be in the same region and locally peered in a hub-and-spoke layout. As part of the scenario, the VCN acting as the hub has a route table associated with each LPG (typically route tables are associated with a VCN's subnets).
When you create an LPG, you can optionally associate a route table with it. Or if you already have an existing LPG without a route table, you can associate a route table with it. The route table must belong to the LPG's VCN. A route table associated with an LPG can contain only rules that use the VCN's attached DRG as the target. It can also support private IP next hop routes to an instance in the VCN.
An LPG can exist without a route table associated with it. However, after you associate a route table with an LPG, there must always be a route table associated with it. But, you can associate a different route table. You can also edit the table's rules, or delete some or all rules.
Important Local Peering Concepts
The following concepts help you understand the basics of VCN peering and how to establish a local peering.
- PEERING
- A peering is a single peering relationship between two VCNs. Example: If VCN-1 peers with three other VCNs, there are three peerings. The local part of local peering indicates that the VCNs are in the same region. A specific VCN can have a maximum of 10 local peerings at a time.
- VCN ADMINISTRATORS
- In general, VCN peering can occur only if both of the VCN administrators agree to it. In practice, this means that the two administrators must:
- ACCEPTOR AND REQUESTOR
- To implement the IAM policies required for peering, the two VCN administrators must assign one administrator to be the requestor and the other as the acceptor. The requestor must be the one to initiate the request to connect the two LPGs. In turn, the acceptor must create a particular IAM policy that gives the requestor permission to connect to LPGs in the acceptor's compartment . Without that policy, the requestor's request to connect fails.
- LOCAL PEERING GATEWAY (LPG)
- A local peering gateway (LPG) is a component on a VCN for routing traffic to a locally peered VCN. As part of configuring the VCNs, each administrator must create an LPG for their VCN. A specific VCN must have a separate LPG for each local peering it establishes (maximum 10 LPGs per VCN). To continue with the previous example: VCN-1 would have three LPGs to peer with three other VCNs. In the API, a LocalPeeringGateway is an object that contains information about the peering. You can't reuse an LPG to later establish another peering.
- PEERING CONNECTION
- When the requestor initiates the request to peer (in the Console or API), they're effectively asking to connect the two LPGs. The requestor must have information to identify each LPG (such as the LPG's compartment and name, or the LPG's OCID). Each administrator must put the required IAM policies in place for their compartment or tenancy.
- ROUTING TO THE LPG
- As part of configuring the VCNs, each administrator must update the VCN's routing to enable traffic to flow between the VCNs. In practice, this looks like routing you set up for any gateway (such as an internet gateway or dynamic routing gateway). For each subnet that needs to communicate with the other VCN, you update the subnet's route table. The route rule specifies the destination traffic's CIDR and the LPG as the target. The LPG routes traffic that matches that rule to the other LPG, which in turn routes the traffic to the next hop in the other VCN.
- SECURITY RULES
- Each subnet in a VCN has one or more security lists that control traffic in and out of the subnet's VNICs at the packet level. You can use security lists to control the type of traffic allowed with the other VCN. As part of configuring the VCNs, each administrator must choose which subnets in their own VCN need to communicate with VNICs in the other VCN and update their subnet's security lists to match.
Important Implications of VCN Peering
If you haven't yet, read Important Implications of Peering to understand important access control, security, and performance implications for peered VCNs.
Setting Up a Local Peering
Here's the general process for setting up a peering between two VCNs in the same region:
- Create the LPGs: Each VCN administrator creates an LPG for their own VCN.
- Share information: The administrators share the basic required information.
- Set up the required IAM policies for the connection: The administrators set up IAM policies to enable the connection to be established.
- Establish the connection: The requestor connects the two LPGs.
- Update route tables: Each administrator updates their VCN's route tables to enable traffic between the peered VCNs as wanted.
- Update security rules: Each administrator updates their VCN's security rules to enable traffic between the peered VCNs as wanted.
If wanted, the administrators can perform tasks E and F before establishing the
connection. In that case, each administrator must know the CIDR block or specific
subnets from the other's VCN and share that in task B. After the connection is
established, you can also get the CIDR block of the other VCN by viewing your own LPG's
details in the Console. Look for Peer Advertised
CIDR. Or if you're using the API, see the peerAdvertisedCidr
parameter.
You will also need to pre-configure some IAM settings like groups prior to going through the step-by-step process.
See the instructions in Creating a Local Peering Gateway.
If both VCNs are in the same tenancy, use the policy in Local Peering using an LPG (VCNs in the Same Tenancy).
If the VCNs are in different tenancies, use the policy in Local Peering using an LPG (VCNs in Different Tenancies).
See the instructions in Connecting to Another LPG.
Configure the route tables to use the information for the other VCN that you were given in Task B: Share information, using the instructions in Configuring VCN Route Tables to Use an LPG.
Configure the security rules to use the information for the other VCN that you were given in Task B: Share information, using the instructions in Configuring Security Rules to Use an LPG.