Creating and configuring a security group in Horizon

Find out how to create a security group and configure it on a Public Cloud instance

Objective

For security reasons, you can configure and use filtering rules that define access to your instances. You can allow or block certain incoming or outgoing connections using security groups. You can apply these rules to traffic from specific IP addresses or to instances in particular security groups.

This guide explains how to create a security group in Horizon and configure it on a Public Cloud instance.

Requirements

A Public Cloud project.
Access to the Horizon interface

Instructions

Step 1: creating a security group

Access the Horizon interface. Then choose the region in which you want to create a security group, via the button in the top left-hand corner.

Info

If a security group is to be used in several regions, you must create it for each region.

Now expand the Network menu and click Security Groups.

A table lists the security groups created. The default group is listed here and allows all traffic through.

Danger

Please do not modify or delete the "default" group. You will need to create a new security group and configure your rules in it.

Automated tasks on the infrastructure can reset the default security group, so it is important not to change it.

OpenStack closes all access to instances by default. If you delete the "default" security group, you will need to create your own group, which will open access to your instances, and apply it every time you create an instance. In addition, the default group will be created again later by the automated tasks on the infrastructure.

To add a new security group, click the + Create Security Group button.

On the page that appears, give a name and description to the group you are about to create. Once you have done this, click the Create Security Group button.

Returning to the Security Groups tab, the table now displays the newly created group. Default rules allow only outgoing traffic.

To modify them, go to the next step.

If you are satisfied with these rules, go to Step 3: Configure a security group on your instance.

Step 2: configuring security group rules

Click the Manage Rules button.

If you kept the default rules, they only allow outgoing traffic.

root@server:~$ ssh admin@149.xxx.xxx.177

ssh connect to host 149.xxx.xxx.177 port 22: Connection timed out

On the rules management page, you can:

delete an existing rule: use the Delete Rule button.
add a new rule: use the + Add Rule button.

When you add a rule, fill in the required information, then click Add.

In this example, we authorise an SSH connection to the instance.

Once you have added the new rule, wait a few minutes for it to take effect.

root@server:~$ ssh admin@149.xxx.xxx.177

Last login: Tue Oct 13 13:56:30 2015 from proxy-109-190-254-35.ovh.net
admin@server1:~$

Configuring a security group on an instance

From the Horizon interface, expand the Compute menu and select Instances. From this page, create a new instance via the Launch Instance button.

When you create your instance, you can choose the new security group created in the previous step via the Security Groups menu.

You can apply a new security group to an existing instance by clicking Edit Security Groups to the right of the instance.

Deleting a security group

To delete a security group, select it by ticking the corresponding box on the left, then click Delete Security Groups.

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