How do I troubleshoot my DOWN Direct Connect connection in the AWS console?

Resolution

To troubleshoot your down Direct Connect connection for an existing or new connection, complete the following steps:

Existing connection

If your existing connection has gone down, then complete the following steps:

1.    If your connection was previously UP, then check your Personal Health Dashboard for notifications of planned maintenance or unplanned outages.

2.    Reach out to your partner to check if they have planned or unplanned network outages.

3.    Check your connection light levels. Levels should be within the range of -14.4 and 2.50 decibel-milliwatts for 1G and 10G Direct Connect connections.

4.    If you still have issues, then contact AWS Support and provide the optical signal report from the colocation provider.

New connection

If you're attempting to establish a new connection and you're having issues, then complete the following steps:

1.    Confirm with the colocation provider that the cross connect is complete. Obtain a cross connect completion notice from your colocation or network provider and compare the ports with those listed on your LOA-CFA.

2.    Check that your router or your provider's router is powered on and that the ports are activated.

3.    Make sure that the routers are using the correct optical transceiver fiber type:

• Single-mode fiber with a 1000BASE-LX (1310 nm) transceiver for 1 Gigabit.
• Single-mode fiber with a 10GBASE-LR (1310 nm) transceiver for 10 Gigabit.
• Single-mode fiber with a 100GBASE-LR4 transceiver for 100 Gigabit ethernet.

4.    Make sure auto-negotiation for ports with speeds faster than 1 Gbps is turned off.

Note: Depending on the Direct Connect endpoint serving your connection, auto-negotiation can be turned on or turned off for 1 Gpbs connections. If it needs to be turned off for your connections, then port speeds and full-duplex mode must be manually configured.

5.    Check that the router is receiving an acceptable optical signal over the cross connect.

6.    Roll the Tx/Rx fiber strands if needed.

7.    Check the Amazon CloudWatch metrics. Check the Direct Connect device's Tx/Rx optical readings (10 Gbps port speeds only), physical error count, and operational status.

8.    Reach out to the colocation provider and request a written report for the Tx/Rx optical signal across the cross connect.

9.    Request that the service provider/co-location partner perform the following loop tests at the Meet-Me-Room (MMR):

• Do a loopback at the (MMR) towards the customer router. If the port on the on-premises device comes UP, then the link up to MMR is fine. You can also check the Tx/Rx light levels on your device. To check if the light levels are in range, use the show interfaces eth1 transceiver command or your device specific command.

• Do a loopback at the MMR towards AWS router and leave it on for at least 10 minutes. If Layer-1 (cable and transceiver) is good, then the port should come UP on the AWS side. Confirm this by using the ConnectionState CloudWatch metric.

10.    If you still have issues, then contact AWS Support and provide the cross connect completion notice and the optical signal report from the colocation provider.    

Related information

Troubleshooting layer 1 (physical) issues