Virtual Machines

VM Firewall

Configure per-VM inbound and outbound firewall rules.

Each VM has its own firewall with configurable inbound and outbound rules. You control which traffic is allowed, dropped, or rejected on a per-VM basis.

Enable the firewall

Before any rules take effect, you need to enable the firewall for the VM:

  1. Navigate to the VM's detail page and open the Firewall tab.
  2. Toggle the firewall to Enabled.

The firewall settings show the current state, including the default policies for inbound (policyIn) and outbound (policyOut) traffic. Default policies determine what happens to traffic that does not match any explicit rule.

The Firewall tab shows the current firewall state, default policies, and all configured rules.

Enabling the firewall with a default DROP inbound policy will block all incoming traffic that is not explicitly allowed by a rule. Make sure you have an SSH allow rule in place before enabling the firewall, or you may lock yourself out.

Add firewall rules

To create a new rule:

  1. On the Firewall tab, click Add Rule.
  2. Fill in the rule parameters.
  3. Click Create.

The firewall rule form lets you define action, direction, protocol, port, source, and a comment.

Rule parameters

ParameterDescriptionRequired
actionACCEPT, DROP, or REJECTYes
directionIN (inbound) or OUT (outbound)No
protocolTCP, UDP, or ICMPNo
dportDestination port or port range (e.g. "80", "80,443", "1024:2048")No
sourceSource IP or CIDR (e.g. "10.0.0.0/24")No
commentHuman-readable description of the ruleNo

Common rule examples

  • Allow SSH: action ACCEPT, direction IN, protocol TCP, port 22
  • Allow HTTP/HTTPS: action ACCEPT, direction IN, protocol TCP, port 80,443
  • Allow web from specific subnet: same as above with source 10.0.0.0/24
  • Block outbound SMTP: action DROP, direction OUT, protocol TCP, port 25
Rules are evaluated in order by position. More specific rules should come before broader ones. Each new rule is appended to the end of the rule list.

Delete firewall rules

To remove a rule, find it in the rule list on the Firewall tab and click the delete action. The remaining rules shift positions after deletion.

Deleting a rule takes effect immediately. If you remove an allow rule for SSH while the default inbound policy is DROP, you will lose SSH access to the VM.