DigitalOcean Networking Skill

progressive_disclosure: entry_point: summary: “DigitalOcean networking: VPC, firewalls, load balancers, reserved IPs, DNS, IPv6, NAT gateway.” when_to_use: – “When designing private networks or segmentation” – “When securing inbound and outbound traffic” – “When configuring load balancing and DNS” quick_start: – “Create a VPC for private traffic” – “Apply firewalls to compute” – “Attach load balancers and reserved IPs” – “Configure DNS records” token_estimate: entry: 90-110 full: 3800-5000

Overview

DigitalOcean networking services secure and control traffic with VPC networking, firewalls, load balancing, DNS, IPv6, and reserved IPs.

VPC

Use VPC to create private network segments for Droplets, Kubernetes, and managed databases.

• Create a VPC in the same region as compute resources.
• Attach resources that need private communication.

Firewalls

Use stateful firewalls to restrict inbound and outbound traffic.

• Define inbound and outbound rules by protocol and port.
• Apply rules to Droplets and other resources.

Load Balancers

Use load balancers to distribute traffic across backend resources.

• Configure health checks and target pools.
• Terminate TLS and forward to backend services.

Reserved IPs

Use reserved IPs to keep stable public endpoints.

• Assign reserved IPs to Droplets.
• Remap IPs during failover or migration.

DNS and IPv6

• Manage DNS records for DigitalOcean and external resources.
• Enable IPv6 for dual-stack support.

NAT Gateway

Use NAT Gateway for outbound connectivity from private subnets.

Networking Workflow

• Create a VPC per environment.
• Attach compute and databases to the VPC.
• Apply firewalls to limit inbound access.
• Add load balancers for public entry points.
• Configure DNS and reserved IPs for stable routing.

Complementary Skills

When using this skill, consider these related skills (if deployed):

• digitalocean-compute: Droplets, App Platform, and Kubernetes placement.
• digitalocean-managed-databases: Private database connectivity.
• digitalocean-management: Monitoring and uptime checks.

Note: Complementary skills are optional. This skill is fully functional without them.

Resources

DigitalOcean Docs:

• Networking: https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/networking/
• VPC: https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/networking/vpc/
• Firewalls: https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/networking/firewalls/
• Load Balancers: https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/networking/load-balancers/
• Reserved IPs: https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/networking/reserved-ips/
• DNS: https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/networking/dns/
• IPv6: https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/networking/ipv6/
• NAT Gateway: https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/networking/vpc/how-to/create-nat-gateway/