Many people will encounter the terms "native IP" and "virtual IP" when building websites, deploying nodes, doing SEO, and configuring clusters. In fact, they are not mutually exclusive concepts, but two IP forms that have their own responsibilities and can work together. So, what are native IP and virtual IP? What is the relationship between them? In what scenarios will they be used together?
First, "native IP" refers to the IP address directly allocated from the operator, directly bound to the network card of the physical machine/cloud server, and can be directly routed and accessed without intermediate jumps.
Features: unique, stable, and not arbitrarily changed. It is generally used for server public network access and Web service deployment. It is more trustworthy for search engines and DNS resolution.
Virtual IP has different meanings in different contexts, but the core commonality is that it is not a "real" IP directly bound to a physical network card, but a logical IP. It exists in the network structure or service layer to achieve more advanced flexibility, disaster recovery or scheduling capabilities.
What is the relationship between native IP and virtual IP?
To put it bluntly, they are not "who replaces whom", but the native IP is the real identity at the hardware level, and the virtual IP is the logical scheduling at the system level. You can think of them as: the native IP is the owner registered on the property certificate, and the virtual IP is the multiple "short-term rental addresses" or doorbells of the house.
Native IP VS Virtual IP: Usage Selection Suggestions
Website deployment, SEO optimization, trust verification, it is recommended to use native IP
High-availability cluster, master-slave drift, it is recommended to use virtual IP + native IP
Defense against DDoS, hidden source station, it is recommended to use virtual IP (high defense)
Batch email, multiple node exports, it is recommended to use native IP
Intranet service scheduling, microservice proxy, it is recommended to use virtual IP
Common misunderstandings about native IP and virtual IP:
Q1: Native IP must be faster?
A1: Not necessarily. CDN back to the source, edge access is even faster than direct connection, the key depends on the network link and distribution strategy.
Q2: Is virtual IP unsafe?
A2: Virtual IP itself has no security risk. The key lies in the mapping mechanism behind it. If you use GRE tunnel and load balancing, there are perfect strategies to protect it.
Q3: Can only one virtual IP be assigned to a native IP?
A3: Wrong. Multiple virtual IPs can run on a native IP and be reused through port mapping, protocol forwarding and other technologies.
In a word: Native IP is stable, secure and irreplaceable. Virtual IP is flexible, dispatchable and automated. Whether you are working on servers, clusters, nodes, game acceleration or website SEO, you will face the "IP" issue sooner or later. Correctly understanding the IP hierarchy is the beginning of truly controlling the network.
