Configuring and Maintaining AWS Hosted Connections

A Hosted Connection is an AWS Direct Connect service that provisions connectivity on demand over pre-provisioned network circuits. A Hosted Connection can support one private, public, or transit virtual interface.

Each Hosted Connection supports a single VIF and you can obtain multiple VIFs by configuring multiple hosted connections.

Diverse connections

Hosted Connections support diverse connections. Diverse connections improve the robustness of your network by using different physical infrastructure to build in redundancy and eliminate single points of failure. You can achieve diversity by connecting to AWS ports in different diversity zones. Each destination port has either a blue or red icon to indicate the diversity zone.

To create diverse connections, you need to create two connections: one connection for each diversity zone.

Before you begin

To deploy an AWS Hosted Connection, you need your AWS Account number and the details of the VPC environment. Ensure that you have already configured the Direct Connect gateway, AWS gateway, VPCs, and related attachments and associations. The AWS documentation provides detailed steps for VPC configuration as well as how to create and deploy each type of gateway.

Creating a Hosted Connection

Unlike configuring a Hosted VIF, where the virtual interface and associated Layer 3 details are automatically provisioned, when you configure a Hosted Connection you must provision the virtual interface.

To create a Hosted Connection

1. In the Megaport ONE Portal, choose Networking > Services.
   If you haven’t already created a Port, see Creating a Port.
2. Select the Port you want to use.
3. Click Actions and choose Add Connection.
   
4. Specify the General connection details:
   • Connection Type – Choose Cloud Virtual Cross Connect.
   • Cloud Provider – Choose Amazon Web Services.
   • AWS Connection Type – Choose Hosted Connection.
     

5. Select the AWS destination port.
   You can search for your preferred AWS port using the Region drop-down list, or enter a search term to filter results as you type. Click Clear Filters to reset the filters. Each destination port has either a blue or red icon to indicate its diversity zone. To achieve diversity, you need to create two connections with each one in a different zone.
   

6. Specify the AWS Configuration details:

   • AWS Connection Name – This will be the name of your virtual interface that appears in the AWS console. This will be the name of your virtual interface that appears in the AWS console. For easy mapping, the name is pre-populated with the VXC name from the previous section.
   • AWS Account ID – This is the ID of the account you want to connect. You can find this value in the management section of your AWS console.

   

   The monthly price is shown under Billing Details, and updates dynamically based on your selections. (Note that some partner managed (client) accounts do not display the pricing details).

7. Specify the VXC Configuration details:

   • VXC Name – The name of your VXC to be shown in the Megaport ONE Portal.
   • Rate Limit – This is the speed of your connection in Mbps. Accepted values range from 1 Mbps to 5 Gbps in 1 Mbps increments. Note the sum of all hosted virtual VXCs to a service can exceed the Port capacity (1 or 10 Gbps, or 100 Gbps in some locations) but the total aggregate will never burst beyond the Port capacity.

   • A-End VLAN – Optionally, specify an unused VLAN ID for this connection. This must be a unique VLAN ID on this Port and can range from 2 to 4093. If you specify a VLAN ID that is already in use, the system displays the next available VLAN number. The VLAN ID must be unique to proceed with the order. If you don’t specify a value, Megaport ONE will assign one.

     Alternatively, you can click Untag VLAN to remove the VLAN tagging for this connection. The untagged option limits you to only one VXC deployed on this Port. (The VLAN for the AWS side termination will be automatically allocated and will not impact your Megaport ONE details.)

8. Specify the Billing Details:

   • Service Level Reference (optional) – Specify a unique identifying number for the VXC to be used for billing purposes, such as a cost center number or a unique customer ID. The service level reference number appears for each service under the Product section of the invoice. You can also edit this field for an existing service.

     Note

     Partner-managed accounts can apply a Partner Deal to a service.

   • Promo Code – If you have a promo code, enter it and click Add Code.
     

9. Click Create Connection to deploy the VXC.

10. Review the connection details and click Confirm to deploy the connection. The deployment can take several minutes.
    Once you have finished this configuration, you can configure additional VXCs.

After creating a Hosted Connection, you need to accept it in the AWS console to activate it.

To accept a Hosted Connection

1. In AWS, go to Services > AWS Direct Connect > Connections and click the connection name.
   

2. Click Accept at the top right of the window.
   

   The state will be pending for a few minutes while AWS deploys the connection. After it is deployed, the state changes from “ordering” to “available.”
   

The connection is now available, however you need to create a VIF to connect to AWS services.

Note

For more information about accepting AWS connections, see the AWS documentation.

Creating a virtual interface

After you have created and accepted a Hosted Connection, create a VIF and attach the Hosted Connection to a gateway.

Note

AWS provides detailed instructions for creating Public, Private, and Transit interfaces.

To create and attach a VIF

1. In the AWS console, click Create Virtual Interface.
   

2. Select the interface type.

   The type will vary depending on the type of service you need to access.

   • Private – Access resources running into a VPC using their private IP addresses. You can choose to terminate a private virtual interface on a private virtual gateway (to access a single VPC) or to a Direct Connect gateway (this will give you a 1 VIF to 10 VPCs mapping).
   • Public – Access all AWS public endpoints, as well as all AWS resources that are reachable by a public IP address.
   • Transit – Transport traffic from a Direct Connect gateway to one or more transit gateways. When you select Transit for the VIF, slower connections are filtered out and no longer appear in the interface.
     

3. Specify the configuration details:

   • Virtual interface name – Enter a name for the virtual interface.
   • Connection – The physical connection where you want this virtual interface to be provisioned. The name you provided for the Hosted Connection in the Megaport ONE Portal appears here.
   • Virtual interface owner – The account that will own the virtual interface. Select My AWS account.
   • Direct Connect gateway – Select the Direct Connect gateway to attach this virtual interface to. A transit VIF is not directly attached to a Transit gateway, but to a Direct Connect gateway.
   • VLAN – The VLAN assigned to the virtual interface. Leave this value as is. The VLAN address is populated and appears to be editable; however, you will get an error if you try to change it. VLANs cannot be extended from on-premises to AWS, and are used only for traffic separation between different virtual interfaces.
   • BGP ASN – Enter the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) autonomous system number (ASN) for the on-premises side of the BGP session.

   The following BGP details can be filled out or left blank. When left blank, they are auto-populated by AWS.
   

   Note

   If you are using this connection with a Megaport Cloud Router (MCR), you need to populate the router peer IP addresses and BGP authentication key. (The fields are optional, so you can leave them blank for the initial creation and add the values later.) You also need to ensure you enter the same values for the MCR VXC in the Portal in the standard MCR A-End user interface. Without these values, you cannot establish BGP peering. For detailed information, see Creating MCR Connections to AWS.

   You can also choose whether you want the virtual interface to support Jumbo frames. Enable Jumbo MTU to support an Ethernet packet of 8500 bytes.

4. Click Create virtual interface.

   To view the VIF details and state, navigate to Services > AWS Direct Connect > Connections > Name of the Megaport-Created-Hosted Connection.
   

   If BGP hasn’t been configured, the interface state will be shown as “down.”

The last step is to configure BGP on the on-premises network device. The AWS documentation provides details on how to download the router configuration as a unique feature of Hosted Connections. If you have an MCR instead of an on-premises device, see Creating MCR Connections to AWS.

Note

If you download the router configuration files, verify that the AWS and Megaport ONE VXC VLAN numbers match. While in most cases Megaport ONE uses the same VLAN number as AWS, the VLAN might be different in the Port configuration that is connected to your on-premises device given the automation of the platform.

Once you accept the connection and create the VIF in AWS, the VXC state changes to “configured” in the Megaport ONE Portal.

To edit a Hosted Connection

1. Click the gear icon next to the connection in the Megaport ONE Portal.

2. Choose Edit Service.
   

   You cannot change the rate limit or the AWS connection name or account ID for Hosted Connections. You can modify the details on the Megaport ONE side including the connection name, VLAN ID, and Service Level Reference. Once submitted, those changes take effect in a few minutes.

To delete a Hosted Connection

1. In AWS, open the AWS Direct Connect console.
2. Delete the virtual interface and then delete the connection.
   You can delete a connection only if there are no virtual interfaces attached to it.
3. In the Megaport ONE Portal, choose Networking > Services from the navigation on the left.
4. Click the gear icon next to the connection in the Megaport ONE Portal.
5. Choose Delete Service.
   

6. Type DELETE in all caps and click Delete to confirm.
   The Terminate Services window appears. Early termination fees will display here, if applicable.

   Note

   Until you delete the virtual interface and connection in the AWS console, you cannot delete the VXC in the Megaport ONE Portal.

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Last update: 2023-07-11