Creating an AWS Hosted VIF for an MVE with Fortinet SD-WAN

Hosted VIFs can connect to public or private AWS cloud services: a Hosted VIF cannot connect to a transit virtual interface. These connections share bandwidth.

To create a Hosted VIF from an MVE to AWS

In the Megaport ONE Portal, choose Networking > Services.
Click the gear icon next to the MVE you want to use.
Select Add Connection.
Specify the General connection details:
- Connection Type – Select Cloud Virtual Cross Connect.
- Cloud Provider – Select Amazon Web Services.
- AWS Connection Type – Select Hosted VIF.
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.
Specify the AWS Configuration details:
- AWS Connection Name – This is a text field and will be the name of your virtual interface that appears in the AWS console. The AWS Connection Name is automatically populated with the name specified in a previous step.
- 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.
- Customer ASN (optional) – Specify the ASN used for BGP peering sessions on any VXCs connected to the MVE. This value is defined when you configure the MVE and, once defined, it cannot be changed.
- Type – Select Public or Private.
  - Private – Access private AWS services such as a VPC, EC2 instances, load balancers, RDS DB instances, on private IP address space.
  - Public – Access public AWS services such as Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), DynamoDB, CloudFront, and Glacier. You’ll also receive Amazon’s global IP prefixes (approximately 2,000 prefixes).
    Note: Public VIFs require manual intervention from Amazon and could take up to 72 hours.
- BGP Password (optional) – Specify the BGP MD5 key. If you leave this blank, Megaport negotiates a key automatically for you with AWS, and displays the key in the Megaport ONE Portal. (The key is not displayed in the AWS console.)
- Customer IP Address – The IP address space (in CIDR format) used on your network for peering. This field is optional for private connections and if left blank, Megaport ONE assigns an address.
- Amazon IP Address – The IP address space in CIDR format assigned in the AWS VPC network for peering. This field is optional for private connections and if left blank, Megaport ONE automatically assigns an address.
- Prefixes (optional) – (visible for Public connections only) Specifies IP Prefixes to announce to AWS. Specify the prefixes you will advertise when deploying a Public Direct Connect (RIR-assigned IPv4 addresses only).
  
  After you configure Prefixes for a Public connection, you cannot change them and the field is dimmed. To change this value, create a support ticket with AWS so they can make this change in a non-impacting way. Or, you can cancel the Hosted VIF and reorder. In both cases, you need to wait for AWS to manually approve the request.
Specify these VXC Configuration details:
- VXC Name – The name of your VXC to be shown in the Megaport ONE Portal. (Tip – match this to the AWS Connection Name on the next screen for easy mapping.)
- 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 MVE capacity, but the total aggregate will never burst beyond the MVE capacity.
- A-End VLAN (optional) – Specify an unused VLAN ID for this connection. This must be a unique VLAN ID on this MVE 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.
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.
Click Create Connection.

The AWS VXC appears as a connection for the MVE in the Megaport ONE Portal.

Next, accept the connection in AWS.

Accepting the Virtual Interface for Private Connections

A few minutes after ordering a private Hosted VIF VXC, the corresponding inbound VIF request is visible on the AWS Direct Connect > Virtual Interfaces page in the AWS console. (This is specific to the region associated with the target AWS port.) If your VIF doesn’t appear after a few minutes, confirm that you are viewing the correct region.

To review and accept the private virtual interface

From the AWS Direct Connect > Virtual Interface page, click the ID of the interface to display the configuration and peering details.

The name and account ID of the VIF should match the values supplied in the Portal and the BGP ASN should match the Customer ASN configured with the VXC. The Amazon ASN is the default region’s AWS ASN and not the value specified during the configuration - this is updated when the virtual interface is accepted and assigned.
Click Accept.
Select the gateway type and then the specific gateway for this new virtual interface.
Click Accept virtual interface.

The state of the connection changes from confirming to pending, and then changes to available once BGP is established. Note that sometimes there is a delay in the available BGP status appearing on the AWS end, though you can confirm the current state of the Layer 3 link through the Portal view.

Accepting the Virtual Interface for Public Connections

Several minutes after ordering a public Hosted VIF VXC, the corresponding inbound VIF request appears on the AWS Direct Connect > Virtual Interfaces page in the AWS console. (This is specific to the region associated with the target AWS port.)

To review and accept the public virtual interface

From the AWS Direct Connect > Virtual Interface page, click the ID of the interface to display the configuration and peering details.
Review the configuration details and click Accept, and when prompted, click Confirm.

The state of the connection changes from confirming to verifying. At this point, the connection needs to be verified by Amazon - a process that can take up to 72 hours. When verified, the state changes to available.

Adding AWS connection details to FortiManager

After you create the connection from your MVE to AWS and set up the connection in the AWS console, you need to configure it in FortiManager. This involves adding a device interface and configuring BGP settings, ASNs, VLANs, and MD5 values.

To configure an AWS connection between a Fortinet MVE and AWS

Collect the connection details from the Megaport ONE Portal.
To display the details, click the gear icon for the AWS connection from your MVE and select the VXC Configuration tab. Note the values for the A-End VLAN, Customer IP Address, Amazon IP Address, and Customer ASN.
Log in to the FortiManager.

Note

You can also log in on your MVE instance: https://<mve-ip-address>
From your managed device, go to the System menu and choose Interface.

The page displays port1 as your physical interface.
Click +Create New > Interface and provide this information:
- Interface Name – Specify a meaningful name for the interface.
- Alias Name (optional) – Provide an alternate name. For easy reference, use the AWS Virtual Interface ID for this connection as the alias.
- Type – Choose VLAN.
- Interface – Choose the parent interface: port1.
- VLAN ID – Specify the A-End VLAN listed for this AWS Connection in the Megaport ONE Portal.
- Role – Choose Undefined.
- Addressing Mode – Select Manual.
- IP/Netmask – Specify the Customer Address from the VXC details in the Megaport ONE Portal.
- Administrative Access - Select how you want to access this interface, such as HTTPS, PING, and SSH.
- DHCP Server - Click OFF.
Click OK.
The new VLAN interface appears with your port1 physical interface.

You can run an execute ping command from FortiOS to verify the connection.

Note

You need to push the configuration to the MVE, which happens when you have AutoUpdate configured. If you cannot successfully ping the connection, go to Manage Devices in FortiManager, select the MVE, and choose Refresh Device from the More menu. If prompted, select AutoUpdate for the Config Status.

At this point, we have created the interface and next we need to create the BGP session.

To create the BGP session

In FortiManager, go to Router > BGP.
Provide this information:
- Local AS – Add the Customer ASN value from the Megaport ONE connection details.
- Router ID – Add the Customer Address value from the Megaport ONE connection details.
In Neighbors, click +Create New.
For the neighbor IP, add the Amazon Address from the Megaport ONE connection details.
For Remote ASN, enter the Amazon-side ASN.
By default this is 64512.
Click OK.
Click Apply.

The neighbor is configured but you need to add the BGP Auth information. The web interface does not let you define this and you need to use the command line to add the BGP details.

To add the BGP authorization

SSH to the MVE instance using your private key file.
For example
ssh -i ~/.ssh/megaport-mve-instance-1-2048 admin@162.43.143.XX
Use these commands to add a password for the BGP neighbor.

config router bgp
    config neighbor
        edit "<neighbor ip>"
            set password <auth password>
        next
    end

CLI steps for BGP

Validating your AWS connection

You can review connection details, including the connection state, from the CLI with these commands:

get system interface – Displays configuration details and current status for the device interfaces.
get router info bgp neighbor <ip-address> – Displays configuration details and current status for the BGP neighbors.

Last update: 2023-05-26