NAT Gateway — Complete Guide
NAT Gateway — Complete Guide: free step-by-step lesson with examples, common mistakes, and interview tips — part of AWS Cloud Tutorial on Toolliyo Academy.
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AWS Cloud Tutorial · Lesson 16 of 100
NAT Gateway
Core services → Projects
Core services · 1 — AWS basics · ~6 min · AWS — Networking & Security
What is this?
NAT Gateway lets instances in private subnets initiate outbound internet connections without accepting inbound connections. It is managed and scales automatically.
Why should you care?
AwsVerse private ECS tasks pull container images and call external KYC APIs through NAT.
See it live — copy this example
Run in AWS CloudShell / local AWS CLI v2, or follow the matching steps in the AWS Console (Free Tier).
aws ec2 create-nat-gateway \
--subnet-id subnet-public1a \
--allocation-id eipalloc-04a1b2c3 \
--tag-specifications 'ResourceType=natgateway,Tags=[{Key=Name,Value=awsverse-nat-1a}]'What happened?
- Places NAT in a public subnet with an Elastic IP.
- Point private route tables 0.0.0.0/0 to this NAT ID.
Practice next
- Allocate EIP; create NAT in public subnet per AZ for HA.
- Update private RT default route to NAT.
- Delete NAT and release EIP after lab — hourly charge applies.
- Add S3 gateway endpoint to skip NAT for S3 traffic.
- Compare NAT vs NAT Instance (avoid instance — use gateway).
Remember
NAT = outbound-only internet for private subnets. Lives in public subnet. Costs money — use VPC endpoints where possible.
AwsVerse patch egress
Private EC2 needs yum updates.
Outcome: NAT plus SSM endpoints reduces cost and attack surface.
Interview prep for this lesson
Practice these questions aloud after reading—each links to a full structured answer.
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