Auto-assign a public IP

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_{Updated May 8, 2026} When a VM doesn’t have a public IP — usually because someone deleted it earlier, or the VM was created without one — the fastest way to give it one is Auto-assign. Raff picks an available address from the regional pool and attaches it. It’s free while the VM holds it; if you detach it later, the IP goes back to the pool. This is the right path for “I just need this VM to be reachable from the internet, I don’t care which IP it gets.” If you need a stable address that doesn’t change across VM rebuilds, reserve an IP instead.

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Open the Public IPs tab

In the left sidebar, click Networking → switch to the Public IPs tab. The list shows every IP currently associated with your account (attached to VMs, attached to gateways, or reserved/unattached). The four stats cards across the top are worth knowing:

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Open the Auto-assign dialog

Click Auto-assign IP (the outlined button with the globe icon, immediately left of the orange Reserve IP button). The dialog has two fields and an explainer.

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1. Pick IP Type — IPv4 or IPv6

Default is IPv4. Switch to IPv6 if you want to enable dual-stack (or IPv6-only) on this VM. A few rules:

• A VM can hold at most one IPv4 and one IPv6 from the dashboard. Need more? Contact support — they can attach additional IPs at $3/month each for IPv4, $1/month each for IPv6.
• IPv4 and IPv6 are independent allocations — auto-assign one or both, in any order.
• If you already have a public IP of this type on the chosen VM, the dialog blocks the assignment with “VM already has an IPv4/IPv6”. To replace it, remove the existing one first from the VM detail Network tab.

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2. Select VM

The dropdown lists every VM in the dashboard’s selected region that doesn’t already have a public IP of the chosen type. VMs with an existing IP are filtered out so you can’t double-assign. If the dropdown is empty:

• All your VMs already have a public IP of that type — nothing to assign to
• All your VMs are in another region — switch the region selector at the top of the dashboard
• The VM is in a transient state (creating, deleting) — wait for it to settle

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3. Click Assign IP

The IP is allocated from the pool, attached to the VM, and the VM picks it up immediately. You don’t need to do anything inside the guest — Raff configures the new interface via cloud-init / DHCP. The dialog closes and the Public IPs list refreshes with the new IP under the VM’s row. The dialog’s footer note — “A free IP will be assigned from the pool. This is an auto-assigned IP — if you detach it later, it returns to the pool.” — is the important behavior:

• While attached — free, no billing
• When you detach or delete the VM — the IP returns to the pool, not to your account. You won’t get the same IP back if you auto-assign again.

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When the pool is empty

The “Available in pool” stat at the top of the Public IPs tab is a per-region count of free addresses the auto-assigner can hand out. If it shows 0 for your selected region:

• The dialog will still open, but clicking Assign IP returns an error like “No public IPs available in us-east. Please try again later or contact support.”
• The IP type matters — IPv4 and IPv6 pools are tracked separately. Try the other type if your workload supports it (most modern OS images come up dual-stack on a fresh IPv6).
• A pool can refill at any time as other tenants release IPs. The fastest practical recovery is to wait a few minutes and retry; failing that, reserve an IP — reserved addresses come from a separate allocation path.
• For sustained allocations (large fleets, scale-out events), email support@rafftechnologies.com — pool capacity in us-east is monitored and expanded on demand.

Because pools are region-scoped, switching the dashboard’s region selector to a different region (when other regions launch) will show a different pool count and resolve the issue if a different region has capacity.

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When to use Auto-assign vs Reserve

You can also upgrade an auto-assigned IP to reserved if you change your mind — see Reserve a static IP → “Convert an auto-assigned IP to reserved”.

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