Linode’s free Cloud Firewalls service can be used to create, configure, and add stateful network-based firewalls to Linode services. A Cloud Firewall is independent of the service it is attached to and can be applied to multiple services. Cloud Firewalls are compatible with Linode Compute Instances and NodeBalancers.

Create a Cloud Firewall

There are two main options to consider when deciding how to protect your Linode Compute Instances: installing firewall software on your system or using Linode's Cloud Firewalls service. While both are robust solutions, a major benefit to using Cloud Firewalls is the ease of configuration. Cloud Firewalls can be created and managed through Cloud Manager, Linode CLI, or Linode API.

• Create a Cloud Firewall

• Comparing Cloud Firewalls to Linux firewall software

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NodeBalancers do not support the installation of firewall software. If you wish to configure inbound firewall rules for your NodeBalancer, we recommend using the Cloud Firewalls service.

Manage firewall rules

Cloud Firewalls analyzes traffic against a set of user-defined rules. The firewall can be configured to implicitly _accept or _drop all inbound or outbound traffic. Individual rules can be added to further accept or drop specific traffic, such as over certain ports or to/from a certain IP address.

• Manage Cloud Firewall rules

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Outbound firewall rules are not applied to NodeBalancers.

Apply to Compute Instances

To start using Cloud Firewalls to protect your services, you can apply it to Compute Instances and NodeBalancers. Each Cloud Firewall can be applied to multiple services, but a service can only belong to a single Cloud Firewall.

• Apply Cloud Firewalls to a service

Troubleshooting

• Troubleshooting firewalls: Information on troubleshooting any firewall service.