Firewall Rule Limits and Consolidation

Use Case

You have reached the maximum allowed limit while adding firewall rules, or you have a list of individual IPs (exceeding 200) that must be condensed to remain compliant with ScaleGrid’s security constraints.

Solution

To maintain optimal network performance and security management, ScaleGrid enforces a limit of 200 firewall entries per cluster. If your list exceeds this, you must consolidate your entries using CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing) blocks.

Understanding IP Consolidation

Consolidation involves grouping individual /32 IPs into a single, broader network range. This allows you to cover thousands of potential IPs while only occupying one of your 200 available rule slots.

Individual IPs (/32)	Consolidated CIDR	Efficiency Gain
10.1.0.1 through 10.1.0.255	10.1.0.0/24	255 rules reduced to 1
10.1.0.0 through 10.1.255.255	10.1.0.0/16	65,536 rules reduced to 1

Why is there a limit?

Managing excessive firewall rules can lead to "rule bloat," which may increase network latency as the system evaluates every incoming packet. Consolidating into CIDR blocks ensures a high-performance environment and a cleaner, more auditable security posture.