Quick start for a basic Global Accelerator instance

Scenario

A company runs an enterprise application on an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance in a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) in the US (Silicon Valley) region. The ECS instance serves traffic through an elastic IP address (EIP). Employees in the China (Hong Kong) office experience high latency, jitter, and packet loss over the public network.

To resolve this, configure a basic Global Accelerator instance. Traffic from China (Hong Kong) is routed to an accelerated IP address, enters the Alibaba Cloud network locally, and is forwarded to the endpoint in US (Silicon Valley), reducing latency.

Prerequisites

• A VPC is created in the US (Silicon Valley) region. Create an IPv4 VPC.

• An ECS instance is created in the VPC. Create an instance by using the custom launch tab.

• The ECS instance is not associated with a static public IP address or an EIP. If it is, unbind the address first.

  • Unbind an EIP.

  • If the instance has a static public IP address, convert it to an EIP and then unbind it. Convert a static public IP to an EIP.

• The security group rules for the ECS instance allow access from clients in China (Hong Kong). Security group operations.

Step 1: Create a basic Global Accelerator instance

1. Log on to the GA console.

2. In the left-side navigation pane, click Basic Instance.

3. On the Basic GA Instance page, click Create Basic Instance.

4. On the Create Basic GA Instance page, configure the instance with the following settings, and then click Create to complete the payment.

   Parameter	Description
   Billing Method	Select the billing method for the basic Global Accelerator instance. In this example, select Pay-As-You-Go. With a pay-as-you-go basic Global Accelerator instance, you are billed for the instance and data transfer. Billing of pay-as-you-go Global Accelerator instances. Pay-by-data-transfer.
   Bandwidth Billing Method	Select the billing method for bandwidth. In this example, keep the default value Pay-By-Data-Transfer. After purchasing a Global Accelerator instance with Pay-By-Data-Transfer, no bandwidth plan is required. Cloud Data Transfer (CDT) settles data transfer fees. Pay-by-data-transfer. If this is the first time you are creating a Global Accelerator instance with Pay-By-Data-Transfer, accept the CDT service agreement to activate CDT.
   Resource Group	Select the resource group for the basic Global Accelerator instance. The resource group must already exist in Resource Management. Create a Resource Group.

Step 2: Add an acceleration region and IP

Add an acceleration region to specify where your users are located, then add an accelerated IP address for clients to connect to the Alibaba Cloud acceleration network.

1. On the Basic GA Instance page, find the basic Global Accelerator instance that you want to manage and click its ID.

2. On the instance details page, click the Acceleration Areas tab, and then click Add Acceleration Area.

3. In the Add Acceleration Area dialog box, configure the acceleration region with the following settings, and then click OK.

   Parameter	Description
   Regions	Select the region to accelerate. In this example, select China (Hong Kong). Acceleration regions.
   Bandwidth	Specify the bandwidth for the acceleration region, in Mbps. The valid bandwidth range is 2 to 20,000 Mbps. Important Setting the peak bandwidth too low may cause throttling and packet loss. Plan bandwidth based on your business requirements.
   Internet Protocol	Select the IP protocol. Only IPv4 is supported.
   ISP Line Type	Select the ISP line type. In this example, select BGP (Multi-ISP).

4. On the Acceleration Areas tab, find the newly added acceleration region and click Add Accelerated IP Address.

5. In the Associate Endpoint dialog box that appears, click Cancel.

   The allocated accelerated IP address appears under the acceleration region with a status of Idle.

Step 3: Add an endpoint group and an endpoint

An endpoint group routes traffic to endpoints in a specific region.

1. On the details page of the basic instance, click the Endpoint Group tab, and then click Add Endpoint Group.

2. On the Add Endpoint Group page, configure the endpoint group with the following settings, and then click OK.

   Parameter	Description
   Endpoint Group
   Endpoint Group Name	Enter a name for the endpoint group.
   Region	Select the region of the endpoint group. In this example, select US (Silicon Valley).
   Endpoint
   Backend Service	Select the backend service type and instance for the endpoint. In this example, select ECS as the type, and then select the corresponding instance. Note ECS instances already associated with an EIP or a public IP address cannot be used as endpoints.
   Select Node	Select the private IP address of the backend service as the endpoint. In the Private IP Address column, select the target private IP address. In the Node Name (Optional) column, enter a name for the endpoint. In the Accelerated IP Address (optional) column, select the accelerated IP address that you added in Step 2.

3. In the Cross-border Acceleration Settings dialog box, read the Compliance Commitments Regarding Cross-border Data Transfers and select Agree to the Preceding Compliance Agreement.

4. Optional: Below the task details list, click View Endpoint Groups.

   On the Endpoint Group tab, the added endpoint appears. Its IP Status is Bound.

Step 4: Test the acceleration effect

After configuration, the accelerated IP address serves as the public IP for the backend service. Clients connect through this IP to the Alibaba Cloud network for reduced latency.

1. Open a command-line window on a client in the China (Hong Kong) region.

2. Run the following command to check the packet latency and loss rate.

   ping <accelerated-IP-address>

Related documents

• basic Global Accelerator instances.

• What is Global Accelerator?.