CloudBlue Commerce supports the NAT (Network Address Translation) mechanism. The following services in CloudBlue Commerce are supported by NAT:
- Hosted Exchange
NAT is translation of an IP address used within one network to another IP address known within another network. One network is designated as the outside (or PublicNet in CloudBlue Commerce) network, while another – as the inside (or FrontNet in CloudBlue Commerce) one.
A customer accesses CloudBlue Commerce services from the PublicNet via a router where the NAT is configured. PublicNet is the Internet (or external network).
In other words, a customer refers to CloudBlue Commerce service from PublicNet and is pointed to a proxy where NAT is configured. NAT redirects the customer to the server in the FrontNet, where the service is located.
As the IP addresses used by customers to access CloudBlue Commerce services are different from IP addresses configured on CloudBlue Commerce nodes where services are installed, the system matches the PublicNet IP:PublicNet IP port with the FrontNet IP:FrontNet IP port and uses it for DNS configuration (where the PublicNet IP is used instead of the FrontNet IP). IP translation rules are also used for determining which PublicNet IP address:PublicNet IP port will be displayed in the CCP.
For dynamic FrontNet IP addresses (the IP addresses selected from a range of IPs, for example, exclusive IP addresses), you need to create an IP Translation Rule and configure NAT on the router.
To use the NAT mechanism in CloudBlue Commerce, you need to configure NAT on the router. There are two ways of NAT configurations possible:
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Configure the NAT on the router before deploying CloudBlue Commerce services. In this case, plan which services to deploy and what FrontNet IP:Port and PublicNet IP:Port to use.
After configuring the NAT, you can create an IP translation rule in CloudBlue Commerce CP to define which FrontNet IP address will correspond to PublicNet IP address, and which PublicNet IP address will be displayed in the CCP.
- Deploy a CloudBlue Commerce service before configuring the NAT on the router. In that case, the IP translation rule will be created in CloudBlue Commerce CP automatically. You will need to change the default PublicNet IP address in that rule by the PublicNet IP address that you have chosen for using this service.
In both cases, you need to indicate in the PCP what PublicNet IP:Port is used (and what FrontNet IP and PublicNet IP will be used) for dynamic selecting of the IP addresses.
Note, CloudBlue Commerce supports the editing of PublicNet IP:Port parameters. If you need to change a PublicNet IP address, you will be able to edit the PublicNet IP in the corresponding IP translation rule and to change the NAT settings on the router.