Endpoint configuration

Key concepts

Endpoint: An endpoint represents an actual service endpoint. Its health status indicates the availability of your service. You can create endpoints by using IPv4 addresses, IPv6 addresses, or domain names. An Address Pool can contain multiple endpoints, and a single endpoint can be used by multiple Address Pool.

Create an endpoint

1. Go to the Alibaba Cloud DNS - Global Traffic Manager console.

2. Click Address > Create Address.

3. On the Create Address page, click the endpoint icon > Basic Configuration.

   The Endpoint configuration overview panel appears on the right, containing configuration items such as service availability, endpoint name, endpoint ID, endpoint type (default: IPv4), service endpoint, health check, enabled state (default: Enabled), and failover mode (default: automatic failover).

4. Configure the parameters as described in the following table.

   Parameter	Description
   Address Name	Enter a name to easily identify the endpoint.
   Type	The endpoint type. Supported types are IP address (IPv4 or IPv6) and Zone. Note IP addresses are a common endpoint type. However, because a service endpoint can also be a domain name for services like a Content Delivery Network (CDN), Anti-DDoS, or Web Application Firewall (WAF), both IP address and domain name types are supported.
   Service Address	Enter the Service Address value based on the selected endpoint type. If the type is IPv4, enter the IPv4 address of your application service. If the type is domain name, enter the domain name of your application service.
   Health Check	This setting is optional. If you do not configure a health check, the endpoint's health status defaults to Normal. To use a health check, you must first create a health check template. For more information, see 4. Health check templates. Port: The port of the service endpoint that you want the health check to monitor. Note You can configure up to five ports. The port number can be an integer in the range 0 - 65535, including 0 and 65535. A value of 0 indicates any port. Health Check Template: Specifies the protocol used to probe the port's health. A combination of protocols is supported, including Ping, TCP, and HTTP(S).
   Health Status Conditions	Defines the condition for determining if the endpoint health status is normal. The threshold is calculated by the ratio: Number of healthy health check templates / Total number of associated health check templates. The following options are available: At least one probe in all health check templates must be normal Detection results of at least 30% of templates are normal. Detection results of at least 50% of templates are normal. Detection results of at least 70% of templates are normal. Detection results of all detection templates are normal.
   Enabed State	The default state is Enabled. If you set the state to Disabled, any Address Pool that references this endpoint will no longer return it in DNS responses. Note If an endpoint is disabled but has a health check template configured, the health checks will continue to run.
   Remarks	Enter a remark to help identify and manage the endpoint.

Bind to an endpoint: Health Check Template

If you did not bind a health check template when creating the endpoint, you can follow these steps to add one and begin monitoring its health status.

1. Go to the Alibaba Cloud DNS - Global Traffic Manager console.

2. Click Address, find the target endpoint, and click Configuration.

3. Click the endpoint icon > Basic Configuration to open the configuration panel.

4. From the Health Check Template drop-down list, select a template that you have already created. A port number is not required for Ping-based Health Check Template. For TCP-, HTTP-, or HTTPS-based Health Check Template, you must specify the port to probe.

   Note

   You can configure a maximum of five health check ports for a single endpoint.

   Each record can be assigned multiple Health Check Template of the same type. The same endpoint can be used in multiple records.

   Set the Endpoint health status determination condition, for example, select At least one health check template reports Normal.

Manage endpoints

Unbind Current Address

Impact: The endpoint is removed from the current endpoint pool, and Global Traffic Manager (GTM) stops routing requests to it. If a health check template is bound to the endpoint, the health check task continues to run.

1. On the Access Domain configuration page, click the endpoint icon > Unbind Current Address.

2. In the confirmation dialog box that appears, confirm the change.

Enable Globally/Disable Globally/Delete Globally

Impact

Action	Impact
Enable Globally	Before you enable an endpoint, confirm that its configuration is correct and its Service Availability is Available. Otherwise, enabling an unhealthy endpoint can cause service disruptions.
Disable Globally, Delete Globally	If an endpoint is referenced by multiple endpoint pools and associated with multiple access domains, disabling or deleting the endpoint affects all of them. Proceed with caution. After an endpoint is disabled or deleted, GTM stops routing new requests to it. However, the endpoint may still be returned in DNS queries due to caching by local DNS servers. The change takes full effect after the local DNS cache expires.

1. On the Access Domain configuration page, click the endpoint icon > Enable Globally / Disable Globally / Delete Globally.

2. In the confirmation dialog box that appears, confirm the change.

Failover Mode

Configure how the endpoint health status is determined and whether it remains in DNS resolution after an exception occurs.

1. Go to the Alibaba Cloud DNS - Global Traffic Manager console.

2. Click Address, find the target endpoint, and click Configuration.

3. Click the endpoint icon > Failover Mode.

   After the page loads, the Endpoint configuration overview panel shows the current failover mode (default: automatic failover) and Endpoint health status determination condition (default: At least one health check template reports Normal).

4. In the dialog box that appears, select a Failover Mode.

   • Automatic Failover: This is the default mode. The system determines whether to include the endpoint in DNS resolution based on health check results. If a health check fails, the endpoint is removed from resolution. When the health check passes again, the endpoint is restored.

   • Manual Switchover: Manually set the endpoint status to Normal or Abnormal.

     • Normal: The system always considers the endpoint healthy and includes it in DNS responses. Health checks continue to monitor the endpoint and send alerts, but no automatic failover is performed.

     • Abnormal: The system always considers the endpoint unhealthy and does not include it in DNS responses.

       Important

       If the endpoint is not associated with a GTM instance, alert notifications are not sent.

Endpoint status

Health Status

• Normal: The endpoint is considered healthy. This occurs when all bound health check templates report a normal status, or when no health check templates are bound.

• Warning: Some health checks from the health check templates referenced by the endpoint are abnormal, but because the configured health status threshold has not been exceeded, the endpoint is resolved as normal.

• Abnormal: The endpoint stops being resolved because the number of associated health check templates with exceptional results has exceeded the configured threshold.

Service Availability

The Service Availability is determined by a combination of the endpoint's Enabed State and Service Availability. The logic is described in the following table:

Enabed State	Failover Mode	Manual switchover status	Health Status	Service availability
Enabled	Automatic Failover	--	Normal or Warning	Available
			Abnormal	Unavailable
Enabled	Manual Switchover	Normal	Normal, Warning, or Abnormal	Available
		Abnormal	Normal, Warning, or Abnormal	Unavailable
Disabled	Automatic Failover or Manual Switchover	Normal or Abnormal	Normal, Warning, or Abnormal	Unavailable