How can I set up a Direct Connect gateway?

Short description

Before you create a Direct Connect gateway, determine if this type of gateway is appropriate for your use case. Keep in mind that if you use a Direct Connect gateway, you're unable to:

• Associate a virtual private gateway with more than one Direct Connect gateway.
• Use a Direct Connect gateway to connect to a VPC in the China Region.
• Connect to VPCs with overlapping CIDR blocks.
• Create a public virtual interface to a Direct Connect gateway.
• Associate a virtual private gateway with a Direct Connect gateway, unless the Direct Connect gateway is attached to a VPC.
• Tag a Direct Connect gateway (unlike how you can tag virtual private gateways).
• Use a Direct Connect gateway with AWS VPN CloudHub.
• Directly communicate between private virtual interfaces attached to a Direct Connect gateway.
• Directly communicate between private virtual interfaces attached to a Direct Connect gateway and a VPN on a virtual private gateway associated with the same gateway.

Resolution

1. Create a Direct Connect gateway. You can create your Direct Connect gateway in any AWS Region, excluding the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions and the China Region.
2. Associate a virtual private gateway. You can associate a Direct Connect gateway with multiple virtual private gateways to access multiple VPCs across Regions.
3. Provision a private virtual interface to a Direct Connect gateway. You can attach multiple private virtual interfaces across Regions to a Direct Connect gateway to isolate traffic for your use case.
   Note: One private virtual interface is sufficient to access VPCs (attached to virtual private gateways) across Regions and reduce Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) sessions.

Be sure to refer to the AWS Direct Connect quotas to determine:

• The number of Direct Connect gateways supported per account
• The number of virtual private gateways supported per Direct Connect gateway
• The number of virtual interfaces supported per Direct Connect gateway

Related information

How do I move a Direct Connect connection from one AWS account to another?