A network endpoint group (NEG) is a configuration object that specifies a group of backend endpoints or services. A common use case for this configuration is deploying services in containers. You can also distribute traffic in a granular fashion to applications running on your backend instances.
You can use NEGs as backends for some load balancers.
Zonal and internet NEGs define how endpoints should be reached, whether they are reachable, and where they are located. Unlike these NEG types, serverless NEGs don't contain endpoints.
A zonal NEG contains one or more endpoints that can be Compute Engine VMs or
services running on the VMs. Each endpoint is specified either by an
IP address
or an IP:port
combination.
An internet NEG contains a single endpoint that is hosted outside of
Google Cloud. This endpoint is specified by hostname FQDN:port
or
IP:port
.
A serverless NEG points to Cloud Run, App Engine, Cloud Functions services residing in the same region as the NEG.
Zonal NEG | Internet NEG | Serverless NEG | |
---|---|---|---|
Purpose | One or more internal IP address endpoints that resolve to either Compute Engine VM instances or GKE Pods. | A single internet-routable endpoint that is hosted outside of Google Cloud. | A single endpoint within Google's network that resolves to an Google Cloud, Cloud Functions or Cloud Run (fully managed) service. |
NetworkEndpointType API name |
|
|
SERVERLESS FQDN belonging to an Google Cloud, Cloud Functions or Cloud Run (fully managed) service. |
Number of endpoints | 1 or more | 1 | 1 |
Health checks for NEGs attached to backend services | Centralized health checking for NEGs with GCE_VM_IP_PORT
endpoints only. Not applicable to NEGs with GCE_VM_IP endpoints.
|
Not applicable | Not applicable |
Scope | Zonal | Global | Regional |
Routing | VPC network | Internet | To Google APIs and Services |
Google Cloud Products that use this NEG |
|
|
External HTTP(S) Load Balancing:
|
For more information about zonal, internet, and serverless NEGs, see:
- Zonal network endpoint groups overview
- Internet network endpoint groups overview
- Serverless network endpoint groups overview