Set up and manage network address translation with Private NAT

This page describes how to configure private-to-private network address translation (NAT) in Cloud NAT.

Before you begin

Complete the following tasks before setting up Private NAT.

Review Private NAT specifications

See the following specifications and requirements:

• For general specifications, see Private NAT.
• For traffic between spokes of a Network Connectivity Center hub, including VPC spokes and hybrid spokes, see Private NAT for Network Connectivity Center spokes.
• For traffic between Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) networks and non-Google Cloud networks through Cloud Interconnect or Cloud VPN, see Hybrid NAT.

Get IAM permissions

The Compute Network Admin role (roles/compute.networkAdmin) gives you permissions to create a NAT gateway on Cloud Router, reserve and assign NAT IP addresses, and specify subnetworks (subnets) whose traffic should use network address translation by the NAT gateway.

Set up Google Cloud

Before you get started, set up the following items in Google Cloud.

1. Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

2. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

   Go to project selector

3. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

4. Enable the Compute Engine API.

   Enable the API

5. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

6. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

   gcloud init

   Note: If you installed the gcloud CLI previously, make sure you have the latest version by running gcloud components update.

7. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

   Go to project selector

8. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

9. Enable the Compute Engine API.

   Enable the API

10. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

11. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

    gcloud init

    Note: If you installed the gcloud CLI previously, make sure you have the latest version by running gcloud components update.

The Google Cloud CLI instructions on this page assume that you have set your project ID before issuing commands.

1. You can set a project ID with the following command:

   gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID
   

2. You can also view a project ID that is already set:

   gcloud config list --format='text(core.project)'
   

Create a NAT subnet of purpose PRIVATE_NAT

Before you configure Private NAT, you create a NAT subnet of purpose PRIVATE_NAT. The NAT subnet must be in the same region where you plan to create your Private NAT gateway. The Private NAT gateway uses IP address ranges from this subnet to perform NAT. Ensure that this subnet does not overlap with an existing subnet in any of the connected networks. You cannot create any resource in this subnet. This subnet is used only for Private NAT.

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the VPC networks page.

   Go to VPC networks

2. To show the VPC network details page, click the name of a VPC network.

3. Click the Subnets tab.

4. Click Add subnet. In the Add a subnet dialog, do the following:

   1. Provide a name for the subnet.
   2. Select a region.
   3. For Purpose, select Private NAT.

   4. Enter an IP address range, which is the primary IPv4 range for the subnet.

      If you select a range that is not an RFC 1918 address, confirm that the range doesn't conflict with an existing configuration. For more information about valid IPv4 subnet ranges, see IPv4 subnet ranges.

      Note: IP address ranges that have privately used public IPv4 addresses are not supported. For more information, see VPC spokes and VPC Network Peering.

5. Click Add.

gcloud

Use the gcloud compute networks subnet create command to create the subnet.

  gcloud compute networks subnets create NAT_SUBNET \
      --network=NETWORK \
      --region=REGION \
      --range=IP_RANGE \
      --purpose=PRIVATE_NAT

Replace the following:

• NAT_SUBNET: the name of the Private NAT subnet range to create.
• NETWORK: the network to which the subnetwork belongs.
• REGION: the region of the subnetwork to create. If not specified, you might be prompted to select a region (interactive mode only).
• IP_RANGE: the IP space allocated to this subnet in CIDR format. Ensure that IP_RANGE takes into account using twice the size of ports required per VM.

Configure Private NAT

You configure Private NAT by creating a Private NAT gateway in the source VPC network. Each gateway is associated with a single VPC network, region, and Cloud Router.

When configuring Private NAT, you can enable one or both of the following:

• Private NAT for Network Connectivity Center spokes. Enables NAT for traffic between the following:
  • A source VPC network and a destination VPC network in the same Network Connectivity Center hub. Both networks must be configured as VPC spokes.
  • A source VPC network that is configured as a VPC spoke in a Network Connectivity Center hub and a destination on-premises or other cloud provider network that is connected to the hub through a hybrid spoke (Preview).
• Hybrid NAT. Enables NAT for traffic between a source VPC network and a destination on-premises or other cloud provider network. The networks must be connected through Cloud Interconnect or Cloud VPN.

Create a Private NAT gateway

Create a Private NAT gateway in the source VPC network for which you want to configure NAT.

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud NAT page.

   Go to Cloud NAT

2. Click Get started or Create Cloud NAT gateway.

   Note: If this is the first Cloud NAT gateway that you're creating, click Get started. If you already have existing gateways, then instead of Get started, Google Cloud displays the Create Cloud NAT gateway button. To create another gateway, click Create Cloud NAT gateway.

3. Enter a gateway name.

4. For NAT type, select Private.

5. Select a VPC network for the NAT gateway.

6. Select the region for the NAT gateway.

7. Select or create a Cloud Router in the region.

8. Ensure that VM instances is selected as the source endpoint type.

9. In the Source list, select Custom.

10. Select a subnet on which you want to perform NAT.

11. If you want to specify additional ranges, click Add subnet and IP range.

12. Click Add a rule.

13. In the Rule number field, enter any value between 1 to 65000.

14. For Match, select one of the following options:

    • To enable Hybrid NAT, select Hybrid connectivity routes.
    • To enable Private NAT for Network Connectivity Center spokes, select Network Connectivity Center hub.
    • To enable both options, select Hybrid connectivity routes and Network Connectivity Center hub.

15. Select or create a private NAT subnet range.

16. Click Done.

17. Optional: Adjust any of the following settings in the Advanced configurations section:

    • Whether to configure logging. By default, No logging is selected.
    • Whether to change how Cloud NAT allocates ports. By default, Enable Dynamic Port Allocation is selected. To configure static port allocation, clear Enable Dynamic Port Allocation and specify Minimum ports per VM instance. The default value is 64.
    • Whether to update NAT timeouts for protocol connections. For information about these timeouts and their default values, see NAT timeouts.

18. Click Create.

gcloud

1. Create a Cloud Router in the VPC network for which you want to configure NAT.

   Use the gcloud compute routers create command.

   gcloud compute routers create ROUTER_NAME \
       --network=NETWORK --region=REGION
   

   Replace the following:

   • ROUTER_NAME: a name for the Cloud Router.
   • NETWORK: the VPC network in which to create the Cloud Router.
   • REGION: the region in which to create the Cloud Router.

2. Create a Private NAT gateway and specify one or more subnets of the source VPC network for which you want to configure NAT.

   Use the gcloud compute routers nats create command with the --type flag set to PRIVATE.

   gcloud compute routers nats create NAT_CONFIG \
       --router=ROUTER_NAME --type=PRIVATE --region=REGION \
       --nat-custom-subnet-ip-ranges=SUBNETWORK:ALL|[SUBNETWORK_1:ALL,SUBNETWORK_2:ALL,...] | \
       [--nat-all-subnet-ip-ranges]
   

   Replace the following:

   • NAT_CONFIG: a name for the Private NAT configuration that you are creating.
   • ROUTER_NAME: the name of the Cloud Router to use with this gateway. This is the Cloud Router that you created in the previous step, and it must not be in use by any other resources.

   • SUBNETWORK: the name of the subnet or list of subnets for which you want to use NAT.

     You can also specify a list of subnets in a comma-separated format, such as SUBNETWORK_1, SUBNETWORK_2. Private NAT always performs NAT on all subnet IP ranges for the given subnet or list of subnets.

   By default, Private NAT uses dynamic port allocation. If you want to create a Private NAT gateway with static port allocation, run the preceding command with the --no-enable-dynamic-port-allocation flag:

   gcloud compute routers nats create NAT_CONFIG \
       --router=ROUTER_NAME --type=PRIVATE --region=REGION \
       --nat-custom-subnet-ip-ranges=SUBNETWORK:ALL|[SUBNETWORK_1:ALL,SUBNETWORK_2:ALL,...] | \
       [--nat-all-subnet-ip-ranges]
       --no-enable-dynamic-port-allocation \
       [--min-ports-per-vm=VALUE]
   

   Replace VALUE with the minimum number of ports to assign per VM. If not specified, Google Cloud assigns the default value of 64.

3. Create a NAT rule to match traffic based on the type of NAT that you are configuring.

   Use the gcloud compute routers nats rules create command with the --match flag set to one of the following options:

   • nexthop.is_hybrid: translates outbound traffic from the source VPC network to an on-premises or other cloud provider network that is connected to Google Cloud through Cloud Interconnect or Cloud VPN.
   • nexthop.hub: translates outbound traffic from the source VPC spoke to any of the VPC or hybrid spokes that are attached to the same Network Connectivity Center hub as the source VPC spoke.
   • nexthop.is_hybrid || nexthop.hub: configures both types of Private NAT.

   To create a NAT rule for Hybrid NAT, run the following command:

   gcloud compute routers nats rules create NAT_RULE_NUMBER \
       --router=ROUTER_NAME --region=REGION \
       --nat=NAT_CONFIG \
       --match='nexthop.is_hybrid' \
       --source-nat-active-ranges=NAT_SUBNET
   

   To create a NAT rule for Private NAT for Network Connectivity Center spokes, run the following command:

   gcloud compute routers nats rules create NAT_RULE_NUMBER \
       --router=ROUTER_NAME --region=REGION \
       --nat=NAT_CONFIG \
       --match='nexthop.hub == "//networkconnectivity.googleapis.com/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/global/hubs/HUB"' \
       --source-nat-active-ranges=NAT_SUBNET
   

   To create a NAT rule for both Hybrid NAT and Private NAT for Network Connectivity Center spokes, run the following command:

   gcloud compute routers nats rules create NAT_RULE_NUMBER \
       --router=ROUTER_NAME --region=REGION \
       --nat=NAT_CONFIG \
       --match='nexthop.is_hybrid || nexthop.hub == "//networkconnectivity.googleapis.com/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/global/hubs/HUB"' \
       --source-nat-active-ranges=NAT_SUBNET
   

   Replace the following:

   • NAT_RULE_NUMBER: the rule number that uniquely identifies the NAT rule, from 1 to 65000.
   • ROUTER_NAME: the name of the Cloud Router that you created earlier.
   • REGION: the region of the Cloud Router.
   • NAT_CONFIG: the name of the Private NAT configuration that you created earlier.
   • PROJECT_ID: the Google Cloud project of the Network Connectivity Center hub.
   • HUB: the name of the Network Connectivity Center hub.
   • NAT_SUBNET: the name of the Private NAT subnet that you created earlier. You can also specify a list of subnets in a comma-separated format.

View Private NAT configuration

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud NAT page.

   Go to Cloud NAT

2. To view NAT gateway details, mapping information, or configuration details, click the name of your NAT gateway.

3. To view NAT status, see the Status column for your NAT gateway.

gcloud

You can view the NAT configuration details by running the following commands:

• View the Private NAT gateway configuration.

  gcloud compute routers nats describe NAT_CONFIG \
      --router=ROUTER_NAME \
      --region=REGION
  

  Replace the following:

  • NAT_CONFIG: the name of your NAT configuration.
  • ROUTER_NAME: the name of your Cloud Router.
  • REGION: the region of the NAT to describe. If not specified, you might be prompted to select a region (interactive mode only).

• View the mapping of the IP:port-ranges allocated to each VM's interface.

  gcloud compute routers get-nat-mapping-info ROUTER_NAME \
      --region=REGION
  

• View the status of the Private NAT gateway.

  gcloud compute routers get-status ROUTER_NAME \
      --region=REGION
  

Update Private NAT configuration

After you set up your Private NAT gateway, you can update the gateway configuration based on your requirements. The following sections list the tasks that you can perform to update your Private NAT gateway.

Change subnets associated with Private NAT

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud NAT page.

   Go to Cloud NAT

2. Click your NAT gateway.

3. Click Edit.

4. For Cloud NAT mapping, in the Source list, select Custom.

5. Select a new subnet from the list of available subnets.

6. If you want to specify additional ranges, click Add subnet and IP range, and then select another subnet.

7. Click Save.

gcloud

gcloud compute routers nats update NAT_CONFIG \
    --router=ROUTER_NAME \
    --region=REGION \
    --nat-custom-subnet-ip-ranges=SUBNETWORK:ALL|[SUBNETWORK_1:ALL,SUBNETWORK_2:ALL,..]

Replace the following:

• NAT_CONFIG: the name of your Private NAT configuration to update.
• ROUTER_NAME: the name of the router to use with this gateway.
• SUBNETWORK: the name of the subnet to use.

Delete subnets associated with Private NAT

You can remove specific subnets from the NAT gateway that are no longer in use.

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud NAT page.

   Go to Cloud NAT

2. Click your NAT gateway.

3. Click Edit.

4. Delete the subnet that you want to remove from NAT mapping.

   Note: If the subnet that you deleted is the only subnet that is mapped to the Private NAT gateway, then the system prompts you to add a subnet. You can map a new subnet or select Primary and secondary ranges for all subnets in the Source list.

5. Click Save.

Add NAT subnets to your Private NAT configuration

To perform NAT on traffic, a Private NAT configuration uses NAT IP addresses from a subnet that has a purpose of PRIVATE_NAT. If your Private NAT configuration requires more than the available number of NAT IP addresses, you can add more subnets of purpose PRIVATE_NAT to the configuration.

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud NAT page.

   Go to Cloud NAT

2. Click your NAT gateway.

3. Click Edit.

4. Expand the existing rule.

5. Click Add subnet ranges.

6. Select or create a new NAT subnet range, and then click Done.

   Note: To add more NAT subnets, repeat the step.

7. Click Save.

gcloud

gcloud compute routers nats rules update NAT_RULE_NUMBER \
    --nat=NAT_CONFIG \
    --router=ROUTER_NAME \
    --region=REGION \
    --source-nat-active-ranges=NAT_SUBNET_1, NAT_SUBNET_2 ...

Replace the following:

• NAT_RULE_NUMBER: the number that uniquely identifies the rule to update.
• NAT_CONFIG: the name of your Private NAT configuration for the rule to update.
• ROUTER_NAME: the name of the router to use with this gateway.
• NAT_SUBNET: the names of the Private NAT subnets to be added to your existing NAT configuration.

Delete NAT configuration

Deleting a gateway configuration removes the NAT configuration from a Cloud Router. It does not delete the router itself.

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud NAT page.

   Go to Cloud NAT

2. Select the checkbox next to the gateway configuration that you want to delete.

3. On the Menu, click Delete.

gcloud

gcloud compute routers nats delete NAT_CONFIG \
    --router=ROUTER_NAME \
    --region=REGION

Replace the following:

• NAT_CONFIG: the name of your NAT configuration.
• ROUTER_NAME: the name of your Cloud Router.
• REGION: the region of the NAT to delete. If not specified, you might be prompted to select a region (interactive mode only).

What's next

• Configure logging and monitoring for Cloud NAT.
• Troubleshoot common issues with NAT configurations.