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Published on 12 APR 2021
Amazon IXD – VGT2, located at 6401 E HOWDY WELLS AVE, LAS VEGAS NV 89115, now offers native 100 Gbps connections at select AWS Direct Connect locations worldwide. If you are currently utilizing a 1 Gbps or 10 Gbps Direct Connect Dedicated Connection, transitioning to 100 Gbps can be accomplished in five straightforward steps. This guide outlines those steps and key considerations for your migration. These instructions apply to connections both with and without the recently announced MACsec encryption feature.
Previously, if you required more than 10 Gbps of capacity from Direct Connect, you had two choices: distribute network traffic across multiple 10 Gbps connections using Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) equal-cost multi-path (ECMP) routing, or consolidate multiple 10 Gbps connections utilizing link aggregation groups (LAG). Although both methods enhance bandwidth availability, they are more complex to establish, maintain, and troubleshoot. The following diagram illustrates a high-level overview of BGP ECMP, LAG, and native 100 Gbps approaches.
This article presents a five-step process for upgrading one or more existing Direct Connect connections to a 100 Gbps connection:
- Assess your Direct Connect architecture and physical connectivity requirements.
- Order your new Direct Connect connections and circuits.
- Set up your new virtual interfaces and network devices.
- Execute the migration and test your new Direct Connect architecture, with the option to revert if necessary.
- Decommission your old connections.
Our method involves establishing a new Direct Connect connection and virtual interfaces in parallel with your existing connections. This approach provides a migration path with minimal downtime and an easy way to revert if needed. To help clarify steps 3 and 4, we will use the example of a single region and Direct Connect location transitioning from a 4×10 Gbps LAG to a 100 Gbps connection.
Step 1 – Assess Your Direct Connect Architecture and Physical Connectivity Needs
Begin by reviewing your network resilience requirements.
It is advisable to provision sufficient network capacity so that if one connection fails, the second connection is not overwhelmed. Planning ahead helps avoid resilience issues in the future. For instance, if you have two sets of LAGs in different Direct Connect locations, each consisting of multiple 10 Gbps connections, this setup provides redundancy. However, replacing these LAGs with a single 100 Gbps connection at each location results in the loss of that multi-connection redundancy. The AWS Direct Connect Resiliency Recommendations page is a valuable resource for finding the right approach.
Next, determine the future of existing connections. Depending on the impact of potential downtime, you may want to keep existing connections as a backup alongside your new 100 Gbps connections. The decision to maintain connections of varying sizes should be based on the criticality of your workloads. Additionally, evaluate physical connectivity needs by engaging with AWS Direct Connect Delivery Partners to establish network connectivity between an AWS Direct Connect location and your data center, office, or colocation environment.
Be mindful of circuit ordering lead times: If you need a new circuit, plan at least 90 days prior to your migration to account for provider lead times. This is also the perfect opportunity to discuss the status of your current circuits with your providers to understand the implications of migrating from lower to higher capacity circuits. Lastly, ensure your network devices can support 100 Gbps connections by confirming that you have available ports for 100GBASE-LR4 single mode fiber transceiver modules.
Step 2 – Order Circuits and Create Your New 100 Gbps Connections
Once your network architecture is finalized and you’re collaborating with your circuit partners, it’s time to start creating resources. Leverage the AWS Direct Connect Resiliency Toolkit to guarantee that your connections are redundant and at the appropriate speeds. A key benefit of the toolkit is that it assists in ordering the number of dedicated connections needed to meet your SLA objectives.
After creating your new connections, download and utilize the Letter of Authorization and Connecting Facility Assignment (LOA-CFA). Ensure that any necessary network device hardware purchased in step 1 is installed.
Step 3 – Activate Virtual Interfaces (VIFs) on Your New Direct Connect Connections
After your new connections and physical infrastructure are established, check the connection status. When the Direct Connect link’s state is marked as available, you can start setting up VIFs. It’s advisable to create a private VIF linked to a test VPC at this stage. For detailed guidance on creating transit VIF, public VIF, and private VIF, consult the Direct Connect documentation. Once your router configuration is complete, your VIF connection state should be available. Launch an EC2 instance in your test VPC as a target for testing. Conduct a ping test from your on-premises environment to the EC2 instance’s private IP address, confirming connectivity from your router through the delivery partner circuit to the test VPC.
After verifying connectivity, prepare the new 100 Gbps connection for production traffic. We recommend mirroring the virtual interface configuration from your existing Direct Connect connections onto the new 100 Gbps connection. The number of VIFs, their types (private, public, or transit), and their association with AWS resources should remain identical. The new VIFs will be in standby mode and will be activated during the migration cutover in step 4.
Note: If you are managing connections across multiple Direct Connect locations, we suggest migrating old connections one VIF at a time.
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