Managed lighthouses
Every Managed Nebula network includes a managed lighthouse at no extra cost. A lighthouse is the component that lets hosts discover each other and establish connections. With a managed lighthouse, Defined Networking runs this infrastructure for you, so there's nothing to install, configure, or keep online.
What you get automatically
When you create a network, a managed lighthouse is provisioned automatically. You can begin enrolling hosts right away. Your network is ready to operate without standing up any servers of your own.
The managed lighthouse:
- Is highly available and maintained by Defined Networking
- Requires no public IP, open ports, or always-on server on your side
- Handles peer discovery for every host on your network
When to run your own lighthouse
The managed lighthouse is the right choice for most networks. You may want to run your own lighthouse instead (or in addition) if you need:
- Full control over the infrastructure that handles peer discovery
- A lighthouse inside a specific network, region, or data center
- To keep all coordination infrastructure on hardware you operate
You can self-host one or more lighthouses alongside the managed lighthouse. See Enrolling a lighthouse for the step-by-step self-hosted setup.
A network can use the managed lighthouse, self-hosted lighthouses, or both at the same time. Adding your own lighthouse does not remove the managed one.