Anthos clusters on VMware is now Google Distributed Cloud (software only) for VMware. For more information, see the product overview.

Proxy and firewall rules

This page shows how to set up proxy and firewall rules for Google Distributed Cloud (software only) for VMware. This page is for Networking specialists who implement data security systems such as firewalls. To learn more about common roles and example tasks that we reference in Google Cloud content, see Common GKE Enterprise user roles and tasks.

Allowlisting addresses for your proxy

If your organization requires outbound traffic to pass through a proxy server, allowlist the following addresses in your proxy server. Note that www.googleapis.com is needed, instead of googleapis.com:

dl.google.com ¹
gcr.io
www.googleapis.com
accounts.google.com
anthos.googleapis.com
anthosgke.googleapis.com
cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com
compute.googleapis.com
connectgateway.googleapis.com
container.googleapis.com
gkeconnect.googleapis.com ²
gkehub.googleapis.com
gkeonprem.googleapis.com
gkeonprem.mtls.googleapis.com
iam.googleapis.com
iamcredentials.googleapis.com
kubernetesmetadata.googleapis.com
logging.googleapis.com
monitoring.googleapis.com
oauth2.googleapis.com
opsconfigmonitoring.googleapis.com
securetoken.googleapis.com
servicecontrol.googleapis.com
serviceusage.googleapis.com
storage.googleapis.com
sts.googleapis.com
releases.hashicorp.com (Optional) ³

Notes:

¹ dl.google.com is required by the Google Cloud SDK installer.

² If your cluster was registered to the fleet using a Google Cloud region, you need to allowlist REGION-gkeconnect.googleapis.com (for example, us-central1-gkeconnect.googleapis.com). If you didn't specify a region, the cluster uses the global Connect service instance, and you allowlist gkeconnect.googleapis.com. If you need to find your cluster's fleet membership location, run gcloud container fleet memberships list. For more information, see gkeConnect.location.

³ If you don't use the Terraform client on your admin workstation to run commands such as terraform apply, then you don't need to allowlist releases.hashicorp.com. If you do use the Terraform client on your admin workstation, you can optionally allowlist releases.hashicorp.com so that you can check if the Terraform client version that you are using is the latest by running the terraform version command.

Also, if your vCenter Server has an external IP address, allowlist its address in your proxy server.

Firewall rules for admin clusters

The admin cluster IP addresses depend on whether Controlplane V2 is enabled on the user cluster and the version in which the cluster was created.

When Controlplane V2 is enabled, the control plane for a user cluster runs on the user cluster itself. When Controlplane V2 isn't enabled, the control plane for a user cluster runs on one or more nodes in the admin cluster, which is referred to as kubeception.
In 1.28 and higher, new HA admin clusters don't have add-on nodes.

The IP addresses of admin cluster add-on nodes (if they exist) and kubeception user cluster control plane nodes are listed in the admin cluster IP block file. The admin cluster control plane nodes are configured in the network.controlPlaneIPBlock.ips section in the admin cluster configuration file.

Because the IP addresses in the admin cluster IP block file are not assigned to specific nodes, you must make sure that all of the firewall rules listed in the following table apply to all of the IP addresses available for the admin cluster.

Set up your firewall rules to allow the following traffic.

From	Source port	To	Port	Protocol	Description
Admin cluster control-plane node	1024 - 65535	vCenter Server API	443	TCP/https	Cluster resizing.
Admin cluster add-on nodes	1024 - 65535	vCenter Server API	443	TCP/https	User cluster lifecycle management.
Admin cluster add-on nodes	32768- 60999	VIP of the admin cluster's Kubernetes API server VIPs of user clusters' Kubernetes API servers	443	TCP/https	User cluster create. User cluster update. User cluster upgrade. User cluster delete.
Admin cluster control-plane nodes	32768- 60999	gcr.io cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com compute.googleapis.com iam.googleapis.com oauth2.googleapis.com serviceusage.googleapis.com storage.googleapis.com Any *.googleapis.com URL required for the services enabled for the admin or user clusters VIPs of user clusters' Kubernetes API servers VIP of the admin cluster's Kubernetes API server vCenter Server API Admin cluster F5 BIG_IP API User cluster F5 BIG_IP API Admin cluster NTP servers User cluster NTP servers Admin cluster DNS servers User cluster DNS servers	443	TCP/https	Preflight checks (validation). When you create, update, or upgrade user clusters. When you create, update or upgrade the admin cluster.
Admin cluster control plane nodes	32768- 60999	User cluster On-premises local Docker registry	Depends on your registry	TCP/https	Preflight checks (validation). Required if a user cluster is configured to use a local private Docker registry instead of gcr.io. When you create or upgrade user clusters. When you create or upgrade the admin cluster.
Admin cluster control-plane nodes	32768- 60999	Admin cluster nodes User cluster nodes Admin cluster Load Balancer VIPs User cluster Load Balancer VIPs		icmp	Preflight checks (validation). When you create, update or upgrade user clusters. When you create, update or upgrade the admin cluster.
Admin cluster control-plane nodes	32768- 60999	User cluster worker nodes	22	ssh	Preflight checks (validation). When you upgrade user clusters. When you upgrade the admin cluster.
User cluster control-plane node (kubeception only)	1024 - 65535	vCenter Server API	443	TCP/https	Cluster resizing.
User cluster control-plane node (kubeception only)	1024 - 65535	cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com gkeconnect.googleapis.com or `REGION`-gkeconnect.googleapis.com gkehub.googleapis.com	443	TCP/https	Access is required for fleet registration. See note 2 after the list of URLs to allowlist.
User cluster control-plane node (kubeception only)	1024 - 65535	F5 BIG-IP API	443	TCP/https
User cluster control-plane node (kubeception only)	1024 - 65535	On-premises local Docker registry	Depends on your registry	TCP/https	Required if Google Distributed Cloud is configured to use a local private Docker registry instead of gcr.io.
User cluster control-plane node (kubeception only)	1024 - 65535	gcr.io oauth2.googleapis.com storage.googleapis.com Any *.googleapis.com URL required for the services enabled for the admin cluster	443	TCP/https	Download images from public Docker registries. Not required if using a private Docker registry.
Cloud Logging Collector, which runs on an admin cluster add-on node	1024 - 65535	oauth2.googleapis.com logging.googleapis.com servicecontrol.googleapis.com storage.googleapis.com www.googleapis.com	443	TCP/https
Cloud Metadata Collector, which runs on an admin cluster add-on node	1024 - 65535	opsconfigmonitoring.googleapis.com	443	TCP/https
Cloud Monitoring Collector, which runs on an admin cluster add-on node	1024 - 65535	oauth2.googleapis.com monitoring.googleapis.com	443	TCP/https
Admin cluster control-plane node	1024 - 65535	F5 BIG-IP API	443	TCP/https
Admin cluster control-plane node	1024 - 65535	On-premises local Docker registry	Depends on your registry	TCP/https	Required if Google Distributed Cloud is configured to use a local private Docker registry instead of gcr.io.
Admin cluster control-plane node	1024 - 65535	gcr.io oauth2.googleapis.com storage.googleapis.com Any *.googleapis.com URL required for the services enabled for the admin cluster	443	TCP/https	Download images from public Docker registries. Not required if using a private Docker registry.
Admin cluster worker nodes	1024 - 65535	Admin cluster worker nodes	All	179 - bgp 443 - https 5473 - Calico/Typha 9443 - Envoy metrics 10250 - kubelet node port	All worker nodes must be layer-2 adjacent and without any firewall.
Admin cluster nodes	1024 - 65535	Admin cluster pod CIDR	all	any	External traffic gets SNAT'ed on the first node and sent to pod IP.
Admin cluster worker nodes	all	User cluster nodes	22	ssh	Required for kubeception. API server to kubelet communication over an SSH tunnel. This should be skipped for Controlplane V2.
Admin cluster nodes	1024 - 65535	IPs of Seesaw LB VMs of the admin cluster	20255,20257	TCP/http	LB config push and metrics monitoring. Only needed if you are using Bundled LB Seesaw.
Admin cluster nodes	1024 - 65535	Admin cluster nodes	7946	TCP/UDP	MetalLB health check. Only needed if you are using Bundled LB MetalLB.
Admin cluster nodes	All	User cluster control-plane VIP	443	https	Required for Controlplane V2. Allow nodes and Pods in the admin cluster to talk to the Kubernetes API server of the user cluster.
Admin cluster nodes	All	User cluster control-plane nodes	443	https	Required for Controlplane V2. Allow nodes and Pods in the admin cluster to talk to the Kubernetes API server of the user cluster by using the IP address of a user cluster control-plane node.

Firewall rules for user cluster nodes

In the user cluster nodes, their IP addresses are listed in the IP block file.

As with the admin cluster nodes, you don't know which IP address will be used for which node. Thus, all of the rules in the user cluster nodes apply to each user cluster node.

From	Source port	To	Port	Protocol	Description
User cluster control-plane node (Controlplane V2 only)	1024 - 65535	vCenter Server API	443	TCP/https	Cluster resizing.
User cluster control-plane node (Controlplane V2 only)	1024 - 65535	cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com gkeconnect.googleapis.com or `REGION`-gkeconnect.googleapis.com gkehub.googleapis.com	443	TCP/https	Access is required for fleet registration. See note 2 after the list of URLs to allowlist.
User cluster control-plane node (Controlplane V2 only)	1024 - 65535	On-premises local Docker registry	Depends on your registry	TCP/https	Required if Google Distributed Cloud is configured to use a local private Docker registry instead of gcr.io.
User cluster control-plane node (Controlplane V2 only)	1024 - 65535	gcr.io oauth2.googleapis.com storage.googleapis.com Any *.googleapis.com URL required for the services enabled for the admin cluster	443	TCP/https	Download images from public Docker registries. Not required if using a private Docker registry.
User cluster control-plane node (Controlplane V2 only)	1024 - 65535	F5 BIG-IP API	443	TCP/https
User cluster worker nodes	all	gcr.io oauth2.googleapis.com storage.googleapis.com Any *.googleapis.com URL required for the services enabled for this cluster	443	TCP/https	Download images from public Docker registries. Not required if using a private Docker registry.
User cluster worker nodes	all	F5 BIG-IP API	443	TCP/https
User cluster worker nodes	all	VIP of the pushprox server, which runs in the Admin cluster.	8443	TCP/https	Prometheus traffic.
User cluster worker nodes	all	User cluster worker nodes	all	22 - ssh 179 - bgp 443 - https 5473 - calico-typha 9443 - envoy metrics 10250 - kubelet node port"	All worker nodes must be layer-2 adjacent and without any firewall.
User cluster worker nodes	all	User control plane VIP	443	TCP/https
User cluster worker nodes	All	User control plane VIP	8132	GRPC	Required for kubeception. Konnectivity connection. This should be skipped for Controlplane V2.
Admin cluster nodes	All	User cluster vCenter Server	443	https	Allow the admin cluster to manage the lifecycle of the user cluster. Required if the admin and user clusters have different vCenter Servers.
User cluster nodes	1024 - 65535	User cluster pod CIDR	all	any	External traffic gets SNAT'ed on the first node and sent to pod IP.
Cloud Logging Collector, which runs on a random user cluster worker node	1024 - 65535	oauth2.googleapis.com logging.googleapis.com servicecontrol.googleapis.com www.googleapis.com	443	TCP/https
Connect agent, which runs on a random user cluster worker node.	1024 - 65535	cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com gkeconnect.googleapis.com or `REGION`-gkeconnect.googleapis.com gkehub.googleapis.com www.googleapis.com iam.googleapis.com iamcredentials.googleapis.com oauth2.googleapis.com securetoken.googleapis.com sts.googleapis.com accounts.google.com	443	TCP/https	Connect traffic. See note 2 after the list of URLs to allowlist.
Cloud Metadata Collector, which runs on a random user cluster worker node	1024 - 65535	opsconfigmonitoring.googleapis.com kubernetesmetadata.googleapis.com	443	TCP/https
Cloud Monitoring Collector, which runs on a random user cluster worker node	1024 - 65535	oauth2.googleapis.com monitoring.googleapis.com	443	TCP/https
User cluster nodes	1024 - 65535	IPs of Seesaw LB VMs of the user cluster	20255,20257	TCP/http	LB config push and metrics monitoring. Only needed if you are using Bundled LB Seesaw.
Users cluster nodes with enableLoadBalancer=true	1024 - 65535	Users cluster nodes with enableLoadBalancer=true	7946	TCP/UDP	MetalLB health check. Only needed if you are using Bundled LB MetalLB.
User cluster network	all	User cluster control plane VIP	443	TCP/https

Firewall rules for remaining components

These rules apply to all other components not listed in the tables for the admin cluster and user cluster nodes.

From	Source port	To	Port	Protocol	Description
Admin cluster pod CIDR	1024 - 65535	Admin cluster pod CIDR	all	any	Inter-pod traffic does L2 forwarding directly using source and destination IP within Pod CIDR.
Admin cluster pod CIDR	1024 - 65535	Admin cluster nodes	all	any	Return traffic of external traffic.
User cluster pod CIDR	1024 - 65535	User cluster pod CIDR	all	any	Inter-pod traffic does L2 forwarding directly using source and destination IP within Pod CIDR.
User cluster pod CIDR	1024 - 65535	User cluster nodes	all	any	Return traffic of external traffic.
Clients and application end users	all	VIP of Istio ingress	80, 443	TCP	End user traffic to the ingress service of a user cluster.
Jump server to deploy the admin workstation	ephemeral port range	vCenter Server API ESXi VMkernel (mgt) IPs of hosts in target cluster	443	TCP/https	Check ephemeral port range from `cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_local_port_range`.
Admin workstation	32768- 60999	gcr.io cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com oauth2.googleapis.com storage.googleapis.com Any *.googleapis.com URL required for the services enabled for this cluster	443	TCP/https	Download Docker images from public Docker registries.
Admin workstation	32768- 60999	gcr.io cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com compute.googleapis.com iam.googleapis.com oauth2.googleapis.com serviceusage.googleapis.com storage.googleapis.com Any *.googleapis.com URL required for the services enabled for the admin or user clusters VIPs of user clusters' Kubernetes API servers VIP of the admin cluster's Kubernetes API server vCenter Server API F5 BIG-IP API	443	TCP/https	Preflight checks (validation). When you create, update, upgrade, or delete clusters using `gkectl`.
Admin workstation	32768- 60999	vCenter Server API F5 BIG-IP API	443	TCP/https	Admin cluster create. User cluster create.
Admin workstation	32768- 60999	ESXi VMkernel (mgt) IPs of hosts in target cluster	443	TCP/https	The admin workstation uploads the OVA to the datastore through the ESXi hosts.
Admin workstation	32768- 60999	VIP of the admin cluster's Kubernetes API server VIPs of user clusters' Kubernetes API servers	443	TCP/https	Admin cluster create. Admin cluster update. User cluster create. User cluster update. User cluster delete.
Admin workstation	32768- 60999	Admin cluster control-plane node and worker nodes	443	TCP/https	Admin cluster create. Control plane upgrades.
Admin workstation	32768- 60999	All admin cluster nodes and all user cluster nodes	443	TCP/https	Network validation as part of the `gkectl check-config` command.
Admin workstation	32768- 60999	VIP of the admin cluster's Istio ingress VIP of user clusters' Istio ingress	443	TCP/https	Network validation as part of the `gkectl check-config` command.
Admin workstation	32768- 60999	oauth2.googleapis.com logging.googleapis.com monitoring.googleapis.com servicecontrol.googleapis.com storage.googleapis.com www.googleapis.com	443	TCP/https	Cloud logging and monitoring access.
Admin workstation	32768- 60999	IPs of Seesaw LB VMs in both admin and user clusters Seesaw LB VIPs of both admin and user clusters	20256,20258	TCP/http/gRPC	Health check of LBs. Only needed if you are using Bundled LB Seesaw.
Admin workstation	32768- 60999	Node IP of the cluster control plane	22	TCP	Required if you need SSH access from the admin workstation to the admin cluster control plane.
Admin workstation	32768- 60999	releases.hashicorp.com	443	TCP/https	Optional. See note 3 after the list of URLs to allowlist.
LB VM IPs	32768- 60999	node IPs of the corresponding cluster	10256: node health check 30000 - 32767: healthCheckNodePort	TCP/http	Node health check. healthCheckNodePort is for services with externalTrafficPolicy set to Local. Only needed if you are using Bundled LB Seesaw.
F5 Self-IP	1024 - 65535	All admin and all user cluster nodes	30000 - 32767	any	For the data plane traffic that F5 BIG-IP load balances via a virtual server VIP to the node ports on the Kubernetes cluster nodes. Typically the F5 self-ip is on the same network/subnet as the Kubernetes cluster nodes.