Static IP address for Azure Container Intances

Question

We run tests on Azure Container Instances. My question is rather simple. Is there a way to assign a public static ip address to the containers? Our tests are running and need connection to certain nodes, but how to allow them that if I don't know what the public address will be?

If not what else as an option there is?

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50568876/can-i-assign-a-reserved-ip-to-azure-container-instances-aci — Sajeetharan, Aug 06 '20 at 16:05
Private ip doesn't help instances are accessed outside of the azure network — WhoAmI, Aug 06 '20 at 16:13
Want approach is if I define a OS proxy for containers will that work for all requests towards are destinations? — WhoAmI, Aug 06 '20 at 16:16

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 07 '23 at 19:26

So the real question is why you need a static IP address in the first place. An ACI already has a fqdn which you can set. e.g. whateveryouchoose.eastus.azurecontainer.io

Also if you trigger a build/deploy from a github action, unless you deleted the ACI and the build/deploy recreates it, it will still have the previous public IP assigned to it.

However, the situation where the IP address may change without you being aware is during maintenance on the container host. I imagine the containers will get migrated to another container host VM and if that happens, new IP address.

Thus if you have your domain name set in Azure Dns Zone as an A record IP address, this becomes problematic. It will break your site until you correct it.

So how do you solve this quick and dirty? Include azure cli in your container and shell script it to check your Azure Dns Zone's A record (az network dns record-set a) and your container's IP address (az container show). If they are different, set the A record to the new one. This of course assumes you have a service principal (includes clientId and clientSecret and tenantId) created already.

score -1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 07 '20 at 01:13

-1

Unfortunately, it's impossible the assign a static public IP to the Azure Container Instance. Instead, you can create the Container Instance in a VNet, then put the container instance behind an application gateway and assign a static public IP to the application gateway. In this way, you can access the container instance via the static public IP address.

answered Aug 07 '20 at 01:13

Charles Xu

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But container instance is created each time jenkins created a job. It is for Jenkins build agents https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/developer/jenkins/azure-container-instances-as-jenkins-build-agent I don't have a static container instance – WhoAmI Aug 07 '20 at 08:22
@WhoAmI If you do not have static IP for the container instance, then I'm afraid you cannot achieve your purpose. – Charles Xu Aug 07 '20 at 08:27
Maybe a proxy in the container? – WhoAmI Aug 07 '20 at 08:55
@WhoAmI But your container instance is not static, how do you do it? – Charles Xu Aug 07 '20 at 08:58
Setting http_proxy envs in container? – WhoAmI Aug 07 '20 at 09:02
@WhoAmI If the proxy is inside the container instance without a static IP, then how does the application gateway route to it via the backend? – Charles Xu Aug 07 '20 at 09:05
The proxy will have a static ip - public ip. it will be a VM – WhoAmI Aug 07 '20 at 09:07
@WhoAmI OK, when you set the proxy in the VM in the same VNet, then you can access the instance. But how do you set the proxy rules to a dynamic IP? – Charles Xu Aug 07 '20 at 09:11
Good point. Maybe they will access the proxy through the local IP and I will allow the subnet? – WhoAmI Aug 07 '20 at 09:20
@WhoAmI If the proxy can route the traffic to a dynamic IP address of a subnet, then it's a possible way. – Charles Xu Aug 07 '20 at 09:23
@WhoAmI If the answer solves your problem, do you mind accept it? – Charles Xu Aug 07 '20 at 09:31
I will have to test and will do – WhoAmI Aug 07 '20 at 09:32
Having problems with the proxy, still cannot verify – WhoAmI Aug 10 '20 at 07:27
@WhoAmI Actually, I don't think the proxy is a good choice. I have no idea how does it route the traffic to a dynamic IP address in a subnet. Maybe you need to change your direction. – Charles Xu Aug 10 '20 at 07:30
This approach will work, but I have problem with proxy server not server http 1.1 :( – WhoAmI Aug 11 '20 at 10:08
@WhoAmI That's not my field, I could not provide help anymore. Good luck to you:-) – Charles Xu Aug 12 '20 at 01:08
Update: Aci has a different network then Azure Network and cannot access private ips :( – WhoAmI Aug 31 '20 at 13:53
@WhoAmI It's not a good thing to hear. So does it mean the proxy is not an appropriate way? – Charles Xu Sep 01 '20 at 01:20
The Problem is, that azure still keeps changing the IP and then the app gateway proxying breaks until you manually fix it. – Patrick Apr 08 '23 at 19:21

Static IP address for Azure Container Intances

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