Subnets for your VPC
A subnet is a range of IP addresses in your VPC. You can create AWS resources, such as EC2 instances, in specific subnets.
Contents
Subnet basics
Each subnet must reside entirely within one Availability Zone and cannot span zones. By launching AWS resources in separate Availability Zones, you can protect your applications from the failure of a single Availability Zone.
Subnet IP address range
When you create a subnet, you specify its IP addresses, depending on the configuration of the VPC:
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IPv4 only – The subnet has an IPv4 CIDR block but does not have an IPv6 CIDR block. Resources in an IPv4-only subnet must communicate over IPv4.
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Dual stack – The subnet has both an IPv4 CIDR block and an IPv6 CIDR block. The VPC must have both an IPv4 CIDR block and an IPv6 CIDR block. Resources in a dual-stack subnet can communicate over IPv4 and IPv6.
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IPv6 only – The subnet has an IPv6 CIDR block but does not have an IPv4 CIDR block. The VPC must have an IPv6 CIDR block. Resources in an IPv6-only subnet must communicate over IPv6.
Note
Resources in IPv6-only subnets are assigned IPv4 link-local
addresses from CIDR block 169.254.0.0/16. These addresses are used to communicate with VPC services like Instance Metadata Service (IMDS).
For more information, see IP addressing for your VPCs and subnets.
Subnet types
The subnet type is determined by how you configure routing for your subnets. For example:
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Public subnet – The subnet has a direct route to an internet gateway. Resources in a public subnet can access the public internet.
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Private subnet – The subnet does not have a direct route to an internet gateway. Resources in a private subnet require a NAT device to access the public internet.
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VPN-only subnet – The subnet has a route to a Site-to-Site VPN connection through a virtual private gateway. The subnet does not have a route to an internet gateway.
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Isolated subnet – The subnet has no routes to destinations outside its VPC. Resources in an isolated subnet can only access or be accessed by other resources in the same VPC.
Subnet diagram
The following diagram shows two VPCs in a Region. Each VPC has public and private subnets and an internet gateway. You can optionally add subnets in a Local Zone, as shown in the diagram. A Local Zone is an AWS infrastructure deployment that places compute, storage, and database services closer to your end users. When you use a Local Zone, your end users can run applications that require single-digit millisecond latencies. For more information, see AWS Local Zones.
Subnet routing
Each subnet must be associated with a route table, which specifies the allowed routes for outbound traffic leaving the subnet. Every subnet that you create is automatically associated with the main route table for the VPC. You can change the association, and you can change the contents of the main route table. For more information, see Configure route tables.
Subnet settings
All subnets have a modifiable attribute that determines whether a network interface created in that subnet is assigned a public IPv4 address and, if applicable, an IPv6 address. This includes the primary network interface (eth0) that's created for an instance when you launch an instance in that subnet. Regardless of the subnet attribute, you can still override this setting for a specific instance during launch.
After you create a subnet, you can modify the following settings for the subnet:
Auto-assign IP settings: Enables you to configure the auto-assign IP settings to automatically request a public IPv4 or IPv6 address for a new network interface in this subnet.
Resource-based Name (RBN) settings: Enables you to specify the hostname type for EC2 instances in this subnet and configure how DNS A and AAAA record queries are handled. For more information, see Amazon EC2 instance hostname types in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.
Subnet security
To protect your AWS resources, we recommend that you use private subnets. Use a bastion host or NAT device to provide internet access to resources, such as EC2 instances, in a private subnet.
AWS provides features that you can use to increase security for the resources in your VPC. Security groups allow inbound and outbound traffic for associated resources, such as EC2 instances. Network ACLs allow or deny inbound and outbound traffic at the subnet level. In most cases, security groups can meet your needs. However, you can use network ACLs if you want an additional layer of security. For more information, see Compare security groups and network ACLs.
By design, each subnet must be associated with a network ACL. Every subnet that you create is automatically associated with the default network ACL for the VPC. The default network ACL allows all inbound and outbound traffic. You can update the default network ACL, or create custom network ACLs and associate them with your subnets. For more information, see Control subnet traffic with network access control lists.
You can create a flow log on your VPC or subnet to capture the traffic that flows to and from the network interfaces in your VPC or subnet. You can also create a flow log on an individual network interface. For more information, see Logging IP traffic using VPC Flow Logs.
