FAQ

What are Hetzner Cloud Primary IPs?

Primary IPs are public IP addresses (IPv4, IPv6) that users can assign to cloud servers. A cloud server itself does not include public IP addresses. Users must add a Primary IP to the server to establish a connection to the internet. Every cloud server can have a total of one Primary IP per type (IPv4, IPv6). You can manage both servers and Primary IPs independently. This means that it is possible to create Primary IPs without assigning them to a cloud server. And you can create cloud servers with or without adding public IP addresses (Primary IPs). As long as the power state of existing servers is "off", you can freely assign and remove the Primary IPs of those servers.

Why might Primary IPs be useful for me?

Primary IPs make your IP addresses and networking highly flexible. As Primary IPs can be assigned to or removed from cloud servers at any time, it is possible to easily change your network configuration to meet your own requirements. Not all of our customers want their servers to have a public network. However, as long as a server has public IPs, it will also have a public network, even if you don't use the IP addresses. For security reasons, this is not always ideal. With servers that do not have Primary IPs and therefore no public network, this is no longer an issue.

What is the difference between Primary IPs and Floating IPs?

Primary IPs are the main IPs of a server. They determine whether a server has a public network. Servers that only have a Primary IPv4 do not have public IPv6 connectivity. Servers that only have a Primary IPv6 do not have public IPv4 connectivity.

Floating IPs are public IP addresses that you can use in addition to the Primary IPs of a server. Floating IPs, therefore, allow you to assign two or more public IP addresses of the same type to a single server at the same time. Before you assign a Floating IP to a server, the server has to have a Primary IP of the same type. Without the Primary IP, the server would not support the required IP connection.

In comparison:

Can one Primary IP be assigned to several servers?

No, Primary IPs cannot be assigned to more than one server at a time. If you want to use your Primary IP on a different server, you will have to remove it from your current server first. In general, it is only possible to assign a Primary IP to a server if the Primary IP is not assigned to another server and if the server does not already have a Primary IP of the same type.

Are Primary IPs location bound?

On an API level, Primary IPs are bound to a specific datacenter and they have to be in the same datacenter as the cloud server you assign them to.

Right now, we only have one datacenter per location. To make things simpler in the Cloud Console, Primary IPs are therefore shown as location bound. In the Cloud Console, a Primary IP in Falkenstein, for example, can only be assigned to a server that is also in Falkenstein. The same rule applies to all other datacenters.

How do I protect my Primary IP from being deleted by accident?

You can protect Primary IPs via Cloud Console and API by enabling protection or auto delete.

• Enabling protection will disable the option to delete the resource. To delete a protected Primary IP, you have to disable protection first. It is not possible to delete servers that have a protected Primary IP assigned to them.
  
  

Protected resources are indicated by a lock icon on the Primary IP list view.

• Auto delete determines if a Primary IP that isn't protected gets deleted with a server or not.
  
  

Disabled: Primary IP remains available; only the server gets deleted.
Enabled: Primary IP gets deleted with a server.

Resources that have auto delete enabled are indicated by a bin icon on the Primary IP list view.

What cloud resources can Primary IPs be used with?

Cloud servers are the only resource Primary IPs can be assigned to.

Are Primary IPs moveable?

Yes, it is possible to move Primary IPs to another project. Primary IPs cannot be assigned to any server if you want to move them. It is also not possible to move servers that have at least one Primary IP assigned to them. Once both resources are in the same project again, you can reassign the Primary IP to your server.

Who can make changes to Primary IPs?

All restricted users and users with role above that have permission to create Primary IPs and make changes to them (assign to server, remove from server, delete).

How do you bill for Primary IPs?

We bill Primary IPs (IPv4, IPv6) and cloud servers separately, and will list both resources separately in invoices. We will bill you for all Primary IPs that have finished the creation process, including Primary IPs that are not assigned to any cloud server. If you want to stop paying for a Primary IP, you need to delete it. If it still exists, we will still bill you for it.