---
title: Enable Firewall
url: https://docs.vultr.com/products/compute/instances/cloud-gpu/networking/enable-firewall
description: Learn how to activate a Vultr Firewall Group to protect your Vultr Cloud GPU instance from unauthorized access.
publish_date: 2024-09-23T20:20:11.683584Z
last_updated: 2026-05-26T18:48:05.146832Z
---

# How to Enable a Vultr Firewall Group on a Vultr Cloud GPU Instance

Vultr Firewall groups enable the creation of firewall rules to filter incoming traffic on an instance's public network interface. Firewall rules consist of IPv4 or IPv6 port and service definitons to filter network traffic.

Follow this guide to enable a Vultr Firewall group on a Vultr Cloud GPU instance using the Vultr Console, API, CLI, or Terraform.

=== "Vultr Console"

    1. Navigate to **Products** and click **Compute**.
    1. Click your target instance to open its management page.
    1. Navigate to the **Settings** tab.
    1. Click **Firewall** on the left navigation menu.
    1. Click the **Firewall** drop-down to select a new firewall group.
    1. Click **Update Firewall Group** to apply changes on the instance.

=== "Vultr API"

    1. Send a `GET` request to the [**List Instances** endpoint](https://www.vultr.com/api/#tag/instances/operation/list-instances) and note the target instance's ID in your output.

        ```console
        $ curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/instances" \
          -X GET \
          -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}"
        ```

    1. Send a `GET` request to the [**List Firewall Groups** endpoint](https://www.vultr.com/api/#tag/firewall/operation/list-firewall-groups) to list all firewall groups in your Vultr account.

        ```console
        $ curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/firewalls" \
          -X GET \
          -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}"
        ```

    1. Send a `PATCH` request to the [**Update Instance** endpoint](https://www.vultr.com/api/#tag/instances/operation/update-instance) to attach a firewall group to the instance.

        ```console
        $ curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/instances/{instance-id}" \
          -X PATCH \
          -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}" \
          -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
          --data '{
            "firewall_group_id" : "<firewall-id>",
          }'
        ```

=== "Vultr CLI"

    1. List all firewall groups in your Vultr account and note the target firewall group's ID.

        ```console
        $ vultr-cli firewall group list
        ```

    1. List all instances in your Vultr account and note the target instance's ID.

        ```console
        $ vultr-cli instance list
        ```

    1. Attach the firewall group to the instance.
        
        ```console
        $ vultr-cli instance update-firewall-group --instance-id <instance-id> --firewall-group-id <firewall-id>
        ```

=== "Terraform"

    1. Open your Terraform configuration for the existing Cloud GPU instance.

    1. Create or reference a `vultr_firewall_group` resource and attach it to the instance.

        ```terraform
        # Create a firewall group
        resource "vultr_firewall_group" "web" {
            description = "Web server firewall group"
        }

        # Add example rules to the group
        resource "vultr_firewall_rule" "allow_http" {
            firewall_group_id = vultr_firewall_group.web.id
            protocol          = "tcp"
            ip_type           = "v4"
            subnet            = "0.0.0.0"
            subnet_size       = 0
            port              = "80"
        }

        resource "vultr_firewall_rule" "allow_https" {
            firewall_group_id = vultr_firewall_group.web.id
            protocol          = "tcp"
            ip_type           = "v4"
            subnet            = "0.0.0.0"
            subnet_size       = 0
            port              = "443"
        }

        # Attach the firewall group to the GPU instance
        resource "vultr_instance" "gpu" {
            # ...existing fields (region, plan, os_id, label, etc.)

            firewall_group_id = vultr_firewall_group.web.id
        }
        ```

    1. Apply the configuration and observe the following output:

        ```
        Apply complete! Resources: 3 added, 0 changed, 0 destroyed.
        ```