Reserved IPs
Point DNS at a reserved IP once, then swap the server behind it for failover, migrations, or redeploys without touching your records. Also called a floating IP, the address belongs to you, not to any one server: you hold it until you release it, and you can attach it, detach it, and move it between servers whenever you like. It stays the same across those moves, which makes it the right tool for a stable public address.
You'll find the pool under Reserved IPs in the console. It lists every address you hold, its status, its region, and the server it's currently attached to.
How the pool works
Each row is one address. A reserved IP is either:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Available | Held by you but not bound to any server. You can attach it or release it. |
| Attached | Bound to a server (shown next to the address). You can detach it. |
Click any address to copy it to your clipboard. The banner at the top of the page states how many addresses you may hold — once you reach that number, the Reserve an IP button is disabled until you release one.
Reserved IPs are region-scoped
A floating IP only routes inside the region it was reserved in, so it can only attach to servers in that same region. When you reserve one, you choose its region up front. Regions that don't offer floating IPs won't appear in the list.
Reserve an IP
Open the reserve dialog
Click Reserve an IP in the top-right of the Reserved IPs page.
Pick a region
If more than one region offers floating IPs, choose which region to reserve in. The IP only routes within that region, so pick where your servers are. With a single eligible region, this step is skipped.
Confirm
Review the rate and how it will be charged — the dialog states it for your billing mode — and confirm. The new address appears in your pool as Available, ready to attach.
What reserving needs in your wallet depends on your billing mode. On monthly (the default), the IP's whole month is charged the moment you reserve it, so the wallet needs that full month. On hourly, it needs an hour of the IP's cost. Either way, it's refused if the region you picked has no free address left in its pool right now.
A reservation adds to the account's bill, so a team admin managing someone else's account can't reserve one — Reserve an IP stays disabled for them. They can still attach, detach and release the IPs already in the pool. See Team & collaborators.
Attach an IP to a server
Choose an available IP
On an Available address, click Attach.
Select the target server
Pick a server from the dropdown, which lists your running and stopped servers. If you pick one in a different region than the IP, the attach is rejected — a floating IP only routes within its own region.
Attach & reboot
Click Attach & reboot. The server reboots so it can bring the extra address up on its network interface. Once it's back, traffic to the reserved IP reaches that server.
Attaching and detaching reboot the server
Both attaching and detaching a reserved IP cold-reboot the server so it picks up the network change. Plan the swap for a moment when a short reboot is acceptable.
If you don't have any servers yet, deploy one first — you need a running or stopped server to attach an available IP to it.
The server's firewall covers its reserved IPs too. When the firewall is on, traffic to a reserved IP is filtered by the same rules as traffic to the server's own public IP.
Reinstalls and snapshot restores
An attached IP stays with its server through both:
- Reinstall. The fresh system comes back with the IP still attached, before it first boots. You don't need to attach it again. In the rare case that can't be done right then, the server boots without it rather than failing the reinstall, and the IP is attached a moment later (the server restarts once) or, at the latest, the next time you start it. If the fresh system won't boot with it attached, it's taken off and the server is booted without it; it comes back the next time you start the server.
- Restoring a snapshot. The server's network is matched to the IPs it holds now, not the ones it held when the snapshot was taken. An IP you detached after the snapshot isn't brought back (someone else may hold it by now), and one you attached after the snapshot stays attached.
While a server is being reinstalled, its reserved IPs can't be detached. Wait until it's running again.
Move an IP between servers
Moving a reserved IP keeps the address constant while the server behind it changes. It is not zero-downtime: detaching reboots the old server, attaching reboots the new one, and the address answers nothing in between. Both servers must be in the IP's region.
Detach from the current server
On the Attached address, click Detach, then confirm Detach & reboot. The old server reboots, and the IP goes back to Available — still reserved for you.
Attach to the new server
Attach the now-available IP to the other server as above. That server reboots and starts serving the address.
Release an IP
When you no longer need an address, release it to stop paying for it. Detach it first if it's still attached — only available IPs can be released.
Release the available IP
On an Available address, click the trash icon, then type the address to confirm.
Releasing is permanent
A released IP returns to the shared pool and someone else may take it. You can't get the same address back, so update any DNS or firewall rules that point at it before you release.
Billing
Each reserved IP costs a flat monthly rate for as long as you hold it — whether or not it's attached to a server. How that rate is collected follows your account's billing mode, and the reserve dialog and page banner word it for yours:
- Monthly (the default) — the full month is charged when you reserve, then again at the start of each month you still hold it (months run from when you took the address). Releasing stops the next month's charge, but the month already charged isn't refunded — so reserving one for a ten-minute test costs the whole month, and every reserve-and-release costs another.
- Hourly — you pay for the hours you hold it, capped at the monthly rate, and releasing stops the meter.
If your account was set up by a provider who resells Ekire, your reserved IPs are paid for by their account, under their billing mode — not by your wallet, and not under the billing mode shown on your own Billing page. The banner and reserve dialog say so and describe both modes rather than quoting yours; ask your provider which one applies.
Prices are shown in your account's display currency (USD by default) on the reserve dialog and the page banner before you commit, while charges are always billed in USD.