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Satellite Connector overview

Satellite Connector overview

Satellite Connector provides secure TLS tunneling between applications and services that need to communicate in hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

Satellite Connector allows hybrid cloud connectivity for edge devices needing persistent connectivity. It enables advertising of trusted services that are capable of establishing secure end-point connectivity. With Satellite Connector, you can maintain data sovereignty with on-premises applications and services while connecting securely over a public network interface.

Satellite Connector
Figure 1. Satellite Connector

A Satellite Connector is a deployment model that enables only the secure communications from IBM Cloud to on-prem resources with a light-weight container that is deployed on your container platform hosts, such as Docker hosts. This option brings all the security and auditability of Satellite communication, but with fewer resources required.

Here are some key concepts for Satellite Connector.

Connector
A connector provides a secure connection between a specific remote location and IBM Cloud.
Agent
Each connector needs an agent running on your location to establish the connection.
Endpoint
An endpoint is the Connector term for the service being accessed across the Connector service. Endpoints are either the FQDNs or the IP addresses of the resources being made available across Satellite Connector. An endpoint is not limited to http(s) traffic, but can be any protocol that works across a TCP connection.
Access control list
Because endpoints are exposed privately within IBM cloud to all IBM cloud, including other customers, an ACL allows for the IP or CIDR definitions of which resources in IBM cloud are allowed to use the endpoint.

Minimum requirements

These minimum requirements are for running the agent image only and exclude what's needed to run the container platform.

To run the Satellite Connector agent image, your computing environment must meet the following minimum requirements.

  • CPU: 0.40
  • Memory: 500M
  • Container platform must be on x86 architecture.
  • The Connector agent image is for x86 architecture and only runs on x86 hardware or hardware that can emulate x86. If you are on a Mac with Apple Silicon (arm64), the image works if Rosetta is installed. If Rosetta is not installed on your Mac, you can install it via the softwareupdate --install-rosetta command.

Network requirements

To pull the Satellite Connector agent image, you must allow the following connection so that hosts can communicate with IBM Cloud Container Registry.

  • Destination IP addresses: N/A
  • Destination hostnames: icr.io
  • Protocol and ports: HTTPS 443

The Satellite Connector agent that runs in your environment needs public outbound connectivity to IBM Cloud. This can be direct public access or via a proxy. There is no requirement for public inbound access. See the Configuring a proxy for your Satellite Connector for more information about using a proxy. The list of endpoints, including URLs and IP Addresses, that must be outbound accessible depends on the region you specified when creating the Satellite Connector. See the entry for your region in the following list.

Dallas
  • Destination IP addresses: 169.46.88.106, 169.61.31.178, 169.61.156.226
  • Destination hostnames: c-01-ws.us-south.link.satellite.cloud.ibm.com, api.link.satellite.cloud.ibm.com
  • Protocol and ports: HTTPS 443
Frankfurt
  • Destination IP addresses: 149.81.188.130, 158.177.75.210, 161.156.38.2
  • Destination hostnames: c-01-ws.eu-de.link.satellite.cloud.ibm.com, api.link.satellite.cloud.ibm.com
  • Protocol and ports: HTTPS 443
London
  • Destination IP addresses: 158.175.130.138, 141.125.87.226, 158.176.74.242
  • Destination hostnames: c-01-ws.eu-gb.link.satellite.cloud.ibm.com, api.link.satellite.cloud.ibm.com
  • Protocol and ports: HTTPS 443
Osaka
  • Destination IP addresses: 163.68.78.234, 163.69.70.106, 163.73.70.50
  • Destination hostnames: c-01-ws.jp-osa.link.satellite.cloud.ibm.com, api.link.satellite.cloud.ibm.com
  • Protocol and ports: HTTPS 443
Sao Paulo
  • Destination IP addresses: 163.107.69.114, 163.109.70.234, 169.57.155.74
  • Destination hostnames: c-01-ws.br-sao.link.satellite.cloud.ibm.com, api.link.satellite.cloud.ibm.com
  • Protocol and ports: HTTPS 443
Sydney
  • Destination IP addresses: 130.198.75.74, 135.90.67.154, 168.1.201.194
  • Destination hostnames: c-01-ws.au-syd.link.satellite.cloud.ibm.com, api.link.satellite.cloud.ibm.com
  • Protocol and ports: HTTPS 443
Tokyo
  • Destination IP addresses: 161.202.150.66, 128.168.89.146, 165.192.71.226
  • Destination hostnames: c-01-ws.jp-tok.link.satellite.cloud.ibm.com, api.link.satellite.cloud.ibm.com
  • Protocol and ports: HTTPS 443
Toronto
  • Destination IP addresses: 163.74.67.114, 163.75.70.74, 158.85.79.18
  • Destination hostnames: c-01-ws.ca-tor.link.satellite.cloud.ibm.com, api.link.satellite.cloud.ibm.com
  • Protocol and ports: HTTPS 443
Washington D.C.
  • Destination IP addresses: 169.47.156.154, 169.63.148.250, 169.62.1.34
  • Destination hostnames: c-01-ws.us-east.link.satellite.cloud.ibm.com, api.link.satellite.cloud.ibm.com
  • Protocol and ports: HTTPS 443

Next steps